BQ Yorkshire Issue 07

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ISSUE SEVEN: WINTER 2010

a frog in school The software designer’s teaching aids that children relate to

forward ladies Not being pushy, but exchanging ideas and having fun

new gym’ll mix it Budget fitness centres don’t have to be inferior a high-five welcome How Yorkshire’s luxury hotels are attracting custom

diamond geezer

The traditional high street jeweller doesn’t often experience reinvention but that’s exactly what Chris Stoner has done – to dazzling effect BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS

YORKSHIRE EDITION

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WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: WINTER 10: ISSUE SEVEN How much strength of character does it take to keep on launching companies even after one of them has not delivered you what you were hoping – through no fault of your own?

That is what we find out in this issue by talking to Andrew Thirkill. He is currently riding high on the success of Age Partnership and Freedom Back Clinics. But, as he himself admits, there was a “bad period” in his life when an unwise sale he made of his advertising business left him struggling to salvage anything out of it at all. Even today, he thinks the most he got out of it was a harsh lesson in how not to do a sale next time.

Gareth Davies also struggled for a while with the web venture he had left a six-figure salary for to set up with his business partner. It seemed no one was interested until a head teacher had a look at their product and said it would be ideal for education. Today Frog, their company, is the market leader in providing the UK’s secondary schools with learning platforms; technology that could transform the way our children are taught. And as he tells us this issue, the company is just on the verge of international expansion.

Looking overseas is something Bernard Bunting, owner of school uniform supplier Perry Uniform, sees no need to do more of. He feels the special issues affecting his niche market mean he is better served by improving what he has in Leeds. It’s a fine turnaround for a factory that was in administration just six years ago.

On a wider scale this month we look at the emergence of a new type of health club in

Yorkshire – pared down and budget price, but as its proponents tell us, by no means unsophisticated.

We find out what top-of-the-range hotels are still opening – or even re-opening – in Yorkshire, despite the jittery economy.

And we hear just what motivates our region’s school leavers to launch a business. Could a newly established course at Huddersfield University Business School help them on their way?

Chris Stoner, our final entrepreneur profile candidate, knows all about growing up with the business. It was why he initially shied away from working for his family company. But in this issue he tells us why he came back, what he did with that company, and why now he is branching out on his own again.

Finally, we are very pleased to report on the first ever BQ Live event held in Yorkshire.

Covering the all important subject of how business support is to continue in the face of current public sector spending cuts, we hope you agree it has thrown up some real issues to chew over.

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THE LIFE AND SOUL OF BUSINESS

room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements. All contents copyright © 2010 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, December 2010.

YORKSHIRE EDITION

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: WINTER 10 UNIFORMITY MEANS STBILITY

Features 44 DIAMOND GEEZER Chris Stoner takes an established family business into a new marketplace

20 ENTREPRENEUR Uniformity means stability in the supply and manufacture of schoolwear

34 BQ LIVE The big debate challenges what matters

40 HIGH FIVES The luxury end of the hotel market is going through something of a revival

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20 HIGH FIVES

48 TECHNOLOGY Gareth Davies takes his Frog to school

74 THE YOUNG ONES The kids are alright once it comes to studying entrepreneurship

77 SUCCESS STORY A new breed of budget gyms is muscling in on the leisure sector

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TENTS YORKSHIRE EDITION

28 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

BUSINESS LUNCH

The landmark developments creating our industrial landscape

52 BUSINESS LUNCH The Forward Lady who hopes to take a networking idea around the world

Regulars

56 WINE Fruity language from Thomas Norton

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60 FASHION William Hunt is an insider outfitter

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ON THE RECORD Doing the positives in business

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NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and why, here in Yorkshire

26 AS I SEE IT Nine out of ten small businesses don’t export – and they’re missing a trick

NORTON ON WINE

62 EQUIPMENT Rifling the past with hand-crafted, bespoke shotguns

66 MOTORS A Jaguar XJ restores one man’s faith in British industry and design

80 FRANK TOCK Gripping gossip from our backroom boy

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56 BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

ON THE RECORD

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Business confidence throughout Yorkshire remains a worry despite the procative efforts of council chiefs in Leeds and the vision – not to mention the investment – at Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium

>> Centenary Pavilion unveiled A new entertainment and conference venue capable of seating 3,000 people or 1,200 people for dinner has been officially opened outside Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium.

The Centenary Pavilion, named after the club’s centenary FA Cup win in 1972, was officially opened by former player Allan Clarke in front of a specially invited audience of 600 people in November.

Leeds United’s owner Ken Bates revealed that he had realised soon after he bought the club that capacity was the one thing holding back an otherwise very successful events team.

“This is a magnificent venue,” he said. “Hopefully it will be important to Leeds and there will be spin-offs for the rest of Yorkshire. We will be able to bring functions here that would have been previously held outside the county.”

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Business tourism plays a key role in attracting millions of pounds worth of investment into the county and this brand new facility will no doubt attract even more big business conferences to the area. Yorkshire is in the premier league of business tourism and Leeds United’s vision and investment in this new centre is further evidence of that.”

The venue has already hosted Harvey Nichols’s first ever fashion show held outside London.

>>Single plan for Leeds Council chiefs in Leeds have endorsed a plan to bring all the city’s marketing, inward investment, tourism and sector support teams together under one roof, both to cut down on costs and to promote the city more effectively.

Proposals put forward to Leeds City Council’s executive board in December suggest that a

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public/private company arrangement, such as already exists for Marketing Leeds, should be the model for the new body.

The new organisation would effectively take over the functions of Marketing Leeds and Financial Leeds, which currently operate as standalone organisations, with the council in-house teams that cover inward investment, tourism and conferences.

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The report claims that Leeds has not been “sufficiently strategic” in the past in its overall thinking and ambition.

It says bringing all such services together into one organisation would not just maximise efficiency at a time of severe public spending cuts, but would also reduce duplication and competition to attract public sector funding.

The board has endorsed the report and called for more detailed proposals to be brought forward for its April meeting.

The report was produced following consultation with the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and Marketing Leeds and Financial Leeds themselves.

Council leader Keith Wakefield said: “Leeds has a very successful and buoyant economy and despite the recent recession, the city has shown resilience – and that’s down, in part, to the various organisations which have worked hard to raise the city’s profile and attract investment.

“However, despite that, we know that with the current reductions in public spending, we need to do even more with our efforts on marketing, tourism and inward investment functions to attract further investment in the city. Bringing them together as one will go a long way to achieving this and will give a renewed focus on our refreshed ambition for Leeds to become the ‘best city in the UK’.”

>> Confidence drops sharply Confidence in Yorkshire and Humber has taken a battering, according to the latest UK Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) produced by Grant Thornton and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW).

The latest survey of local business professionals, released at the end of

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November, recorded a drop of 18.7 points from last quarter.

The region now lags 8.5 points below the UK as a whole, which has also fallen nearly 10 points.

ICAEW regional director Chris Manners said: “Trends for the key performance indicators – such as turnover and profit – paint a relatively gloomy picture throughout Yorkshire and Humber.

Domestic sales have also fallen, whereas elsewhere they have increased or at least held steady.

“This may reflect concerns about the impact of benefit cuts and above-target inflation on household spending power, as well as fears about potential growth in unemployment. The financial service sector accounts for many jobs in the region and cuts due to the recent banking crisis are still working through.”

There survey also suggests that access to capital remains a persistent challenge for many businesses in the region. In the final quarter of 2010 nearly one quarter (23%) of businesses said it was a greater challenge than 12 months ago.

However Grant Thornton’s Leeds office managing partner Jonathan Riley believes it would be unwise to be too pessimistic, especially as the survey period covered the uncertainty around the comprehensive spending review.

He said: “With the majority of the Government’s budget set out for the rest of this parliament and growth continuing in countries such as Germany, the indicators show that there will be growth in the Yorkshire and Humber economy over the next 12 months, albeit at a slow pace as the increasing VAT and National Insurance payments affect the region’s businesses.”

>> ROK rescue misses Yorkshire A last-minute rescue of parts of building firm Rok has managed to save 11 of the company’s jobs in Wakefield.

But the vast majority of the collapsed company’s Yorkshire workers are now among

ON THE RECORD

1,800 facing redundancy. The Exeter-based company, which has made two significant acquisitions in Yorkshire in the past few years – including Lemmeleg, a firm previously owned by outgoing Yorkshire Forward chairman Terry Hodgkinson – went into administration in November.

Administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers were initially forced to make 1,800 workers redundant, including 52 in Yorkshire.

However a week later, Balfour Beatty subsidiary Mansell Construction Services agreed to buy part of the company’s construction and social housing divisions, mainly in the South but with a small contingent in Wakefield.

The company’s Leeds workforce, however, was not part of the deal.

Toby Underwood, business recovery services partner at PricwaterhouseCoopers, said they would now be retaining a small number of employees across the north of England “to help with the orderly closure of various locations”.

>> Datong back in profit Leeds-based security systems provider Datong has managed to bring home a

full-year profit after some years of losses blamed on delays in projects in its key US market.

The quoted company provides radio communications system for many of the world’s top security organisations.

Unaudited reports the company has released for the 12 months to the end of September 2010 suggest that it made a full-year pre-tax profit of £819,000 on a turnover of £14m, compared with a loss of £1.1m the previous year, when it brought in a turnover of only £7.8m.

Chief executive Dean Blood said: “The delivery of our diversification strategy, coupled with the encouraging signs of a recovery in our core US market, has resulted in a strong final half-year performance. This has produced a significant reduction in the seasonality of the business noticeable in previous years, a trend the board expects to continue.”

The figures were unaudited, however, because the company has just changed the date of its year end from March to September. Audited reports for the 18 months to the end of Septmber 2010 suggest it made a loss of £513,000 on a turnover of £16.9m.

>>Kenny is final YF Chair Julie Kenny has started her role as the final chair of reginal development agency Yorkshire Forward as it prepares to be wound up in March 2012.

Kenny, managing director of Pyronix, was already a member of the gency’s board.

Business secretary Vince Cable said Kenny’s business know-how “will be vital in the ongoing work to wind down the regional development agencies”.

“She will play an important role in what is set to be a challenging and complex time for development agencies across the country and her leadership qualities will allow for this process to happen as smoothly as possible,” he said.

Before founding Pyronix, a Rotherham-based security equipment supplier, Kenny was a litigation lawyer in local authority and private practice.

She has already been appointed by the Government to oversee improvements in governance at Doncaster Council.

She said: “In this close down period I am committed to ensuring the legacy of Yorkshire Forward is the best it can be and that we work hard to continue to ensure that we see the economic benefits from our work in the years to come.”

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NEWS

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There’s money – lots of it – in gravy and expansion in the world of doormats, while furniture manufacture continues to grow and Welcome to Yorkshire scores for saying a long weekend isn’t enough >> McWhirter to head Finance Yorkshire Alex McWhirter, currently assistant director of business at Yorkshire Forward, has been seconded to be acting chief executive of Finance Yorkshire as the organisation aims to play what he claims will be a “pivotal role” in the new Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

McWhirter helped to launch the £90m venture capital and loan fund earlier this year and will be working for it three days a week.

He said: “Having already held a position on the Finance Yorkshire board, I am fully aware of how Finance Yorkshire can help lay the foundations for growth for a variety of companies. It is vital that this new beginning with LEPs creates an environment of collaboration and Finance Yorkshire intends to be a pivotal role in that partnership by investing in key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, creative and digital, healthcare and the local carbon industry.”

McWhirter takes over from Jonathan Dixon, who had been interim chief executive of Finance Yorkshire since 2009.

>> More gravy on offer as firm benefits from £10m boost Food manufacturer Symington’s has won around £10m in investment to fund further growth through product development and expansion into the gravy market.

The Leeds company was backed by Hermes Private Equity in 2007 as part of a management buy-in, and has since doubled its turnover to around £90m.

It has now secured additional funding from Hermes as well as from Yorkshire Bank and management shareholders.

Products that will now be developed with the funding include gravy manufactured under the

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

Aunt Bessie brand, which the company claims has already been listed by many major retailers.

The company has brought more than 230 new products to market in the past year.

Chief executive David Salkeld said the move into the gravy market, said to be worth £139m in total, “fits perfectly with our current range of products and offers us a great opportunity for further development under a very strong brand name”.

Symington’s already makes a wide variety of products, including Golden Wonder Nation’s Noodles, various Crosse & Blackwell branded goods, products bearing the names of TV chefs Ainsley Harriott and James Martin, and Symington’s own brands of soups and snack products.

Company chairman Edwin Booth said: “Symington’s is a major employer in the heart of Leeds. This investment, allied to a continuing commitment to colleague training and up-skilling, will ensure its fantastic people benefit from these strong foundations for growth.”

>> Create attracts non-exec PricewaterhouseCoopers’ northern chairman Steve Denison has been appointed as a non-executive director at Create, a social enterprise based in Leeds committed to developing innovative training and employment opportunities for people who have been homeless, marginalised or vulnerable.

Prime minister David Cameron personally selected the organisation’s work for his second Big Society award.

>> Cut rate for new recruitment arm York-based recruitment agency Renovo has launched a new executive recruitment subsidiary which it claims can significantly

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undercut the 25 to 30% fees some specialist city-based recruiters charge.

Renovofinancial claims it will charge no more than 10% of basic salary on all hires.

Renovo was founded by David Twiddle who built up Morgan McKinley to a turnover of £30m with 150 staff and subsequently sold it in 2004 to 3i and Imprint.

He said: “Many institutions are now caught between the need to hire to restart growth but still have a keen eye on the cost of doing so. Renovofinancial sits perfectly within Renovo’s business model which delivers low cost, distance-based employment services across the entire employment lifecycle, including recruitment, staff retention and outplacement.”

Mat finish: Left to right, Chris Silverwood, James Keighley and Barry Minal at Primeur in Bingley

>> Poundstretcher man backs Primeur Stephen Fearnley, the man who co-founded Poundstretcher, has taken what is described as a significant minority stake in doormat and textiles distributor Primeur, and will become the Bingley company’s chairman.

The deal will see more than £3.1m of new funding come into the the £16m turnover distributor, which is a market leader in the supply of domestic doormats.

Its portfolio also includes rugs, cushions,

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bathroom textiles and beanbags. The business employs 65 staff and operates from a 62,000 sq ft warehouse, but in recent years tough retail trading conditions have restricted its growth and it needed an injection of capital.

Primeur’s joint managing director Barry Minal said: “The business required more realistic working capital facilities and some new expertise.”

The deal, which was led by Leeds-based corporate finance boutique Ethos, includes cash investment by Fearnley and the existing directors.

Existing backer RBS’s facilities have been replaced by a new asset-based lending facility totalling £2.7m, and Leumi ABL has provided a £1.5m invoice discounting line, supported by a further £1.2m from Bank Leumi (UK).

Chris Silverwood, of Ethos Corporate Finance, said: “This shows that there are deals to be done, but the dynamics of the market are completely different from a few years ago. Some banks are trying to get out of businesses due to nothing more than internal pressure to contract and it can be challenging to find viable alternative funding or investment.

Fearnley said: “Primeur is a great business and a market leader that has the opportunity to take advantage of its strong customer base, buying power and distribution advantages in order to grow, and that is exactly what we plan to do over the coming years. Ethos brought the proposition to me as I have experience of the sector, and we now have a solid foundation from which to move forward both organically and through acquisition.”

Other advisers on the deal included Deloitte, WGN, Pinsent Masons and Cobbetts.

>> Inspire them while they’re young Law firm Lupton Fawcett is launching its own BA – business acumen – course for the students of its valued clients and contacts.

The course will comprise a two-day programme for young adults who are either at

university or about to take up places. It will include a series of tailored workshops designed to help them when they have finished their studies and begin their careers.

Subjects to be covered on the free course include how to network, build a powerful CV, find an experienced business mentor and write a business plan, as well as softer issues such as how to dress for business and how to dine and order wine without embarrassment.

Philip Drazen, the director who thought up the idea, said: “Young people today are increasingly required to expand on their capabilities. What we want to try and achieve for tomorrow’s business leaders is to provide them with a springboard of skills in addition to their academic knowledge.”

Young people are increasingly required to expand on their capabilities >> Salvo’s earns a rosette Salvo’s Italian Restaurant in Headingley has just won its first AA rosette, finishing off a year that saw it win the UK’s Best Neighbourhood Award on Gordon Ramsay’s the F Word programme, as well as two other regional awards.

Co-owner John Dammone said: “We’ve also just been entered into the Good Food Guide once again. Our first ever entry was back in 1984 and we still have the original copy taking pride of place in our library.”

>> Bradford firms get training Businesses in Bradford are being offered free employment relations training to improve their people management skills and ensure they comply with employment law.

Acas and Bradford Council’s local impact team have joined forces to help business owners improve how they manage employees at work.

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NEWS

The training, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, started in mid-December and runs until March 2011.

The sessions, which are either a full or half-day, will cover a range of workplace issues including essential skills for supervisors, managing absence, redundancy, discipline and grievance and employment law changes following the introduction of the Equality Act.

>> Harrogate firm moves fast on Ferrari Automation 4, a Harrogate-based technology company, has completed a six-figure contract to provide behind-thescenes specialist software for rides at Ferrari World, a new theme park which has opened to the public in Abu Dhabi.

The theme park, located on Yas Island, claims to be the largest indoor theme park in the world.

The company, which also has offices in London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Dubai, is looking to open up further markets in the Middle East.

>> Xeros raises extra £3.5m Leeds University spin-out Xeros has managed to raise an extra £3.5m in funding to help it continue to develop a new clothes cleaning process which it claims is the biggest revolution in laundry since the development of front-loading washing machines half a century ago. continued on page 10

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NEWS

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Xeros’ patented process uses 90% less water than front-loading machines for what the company claims is the same level of performance.

It relies on reusable plastic beads and a small amount of detergent to absorb and remove dirt, so has the potential to save water and energy, and be less polluting than conventional washing.

The £3.5m has been raised from existing investors including fund manager EV, which first invested in the company in 2009, and IP Group and IP Venture Fund.

But new investors have also come in, including Entrepreneurs Fund, which led the round, Parkwalk Advisors Limited and Finance Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund.

In the past year, Xeros has developed a prototype machine that removes the beads from clothes after washing. It has also confirmed manufacturing and distribution partnerships both in the UK and US, ready for an initial commercial launch at the end of 2011.

Bill Westwater, chief executive of Xeros, said, “We are delighted with this funding completion. Of course, it’s a vindication of our fast progress to date but, more importantly, we now have the funds to step up our technical development, particularly towards our ultimate goal of developing a washing system for the household.

“The opportunity is to provide consumers with lower cost cleaning; dramatically reduce the considerable environment harm of laundry; and provide incremental revenue streams throughout the supply chain”.

Julian Viggars, EV’s head of technology investment and a Xeros Board member, said: “The company has made a significant technological breakthrough, which could re-define the future of domestic and commercial washing. There are huge market opportunities and the company is already attracting significant market interest.”

>> Two new partners for KPMG White Young Green is warning that it will face “significant” exceptional costs in the year to the end of June, mainly due to the restructuring it is going through, which has

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Chair men: Left to right, David Paterson, Blacks Solicitors; Jonathan Simms, Clarion, and David Whitehouse, Co-operative Bank, with Stuart Little and Gary Wilks of British Thornton

>> Furniture firm to expand The largest privately-owned manufacturer of school furniture in the UK is set for further growth after successfully negotiating an extension to its facilities with the Co-operative Bank.

The deal has also allowed British Thornton ESF’s existing directors, Gary Wilks and Stuart Little, to acquire the shares of fellow director David Jevons, who is retiring.

The company and its parent British Thornton Direct, has secured a new cashflow loan facility and an increase in the property loan originally granted to fund the company’s current premises.

Six years ago, the 135-year-old company expanded to a 4.7-acre freehold site in Keighley comprising its headquarters and an 110,000 sq ft manufacturing complex.

The £3m investment in new premises plus a further £2m in new machinery has enabled the business, which also supplies research laboratories, to continue to grow. It now employs 170 staff.

David Whitehouse, corporate relationship manager for The Co-operative Bank, said: “British Thornton is a long-established and solid Yorkshire business. It benefits from long experience and operates within a market where there is still considerable potential for growth.”

Law firms Clarion, Blacks and Lupton Fawcett all advised on the deal.

already led to the closure of some of its international offices. However the multidisciplinary consultancy, which parted company with former chief executive Lawrie Haynes in January after just 18 months and has seen significant board changes since then, says the restructuring is now largely complete.

In a pre-close statement it says contracts it has won this quarter include a deal with the London Borough of Merton to project-manage £7.5m of new school sixth form buildings ahead of a Building Schools for the Future programme; its appointment as construction

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design and management co-ordinator in a £1.25bn consortium deal to widen key sections of the M25; and a 4.9m euro deal to support the European Commission on a three-year development programme in Serbia.

>> Clarity for Emerald Claritas Solutions has successfully created a new subscription portal for Bingley-based academic and management continued on page 12

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COMPANY PROFILE

Government cutbacks are likely to have an indirect impact on small businesses as the availability of free advice from Local Enterprise Partnerships disappears. Does your bank help put you in touch with the advice you need, or is it just an anonymous call centre?

FINDING THE RIGHT SUPPORT FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

G

ARY Lumby, Director of Small Business for Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks, believes the future of small business support is still uncertain with Government plans seemingly not finalised though it is likely that a website and centralised call centre will replace the current network of Business Links across the country in 2012.

“In the New Year, we will see Local Enterprise Partnerships being formed, including the Leeds City Region LEP. As yet, however, the role of LEPs remains unclear, particularly around the support offered to small businesses, and small business owners may find themselves having to turn to their banks and accountants for advice and guidance.

At a time when the Relationship Management services offered by many banks to small business customers are being diluted, this could lead to a further challenge for embattled small business owners.”

Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks have chosen this moment to invest in their Small Business operation and see an opportunity to help small business through their expanding team of Small Business Relationship and Business Development Managers - offering an enhanced advice and signposting service.

“In the current economic climate, it is clear that small businesses are looking for more than just the financial support that comes from their bank.

Small Businesses expect a proactive approach to support; advice on areas such as Access to Finance, Mentoring, Investor Readiness, Marketing and Strategic Business Reviews.

This is why the strategy of Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks’ new Small Business division is to invest in the training and development of Relationship Managers - so that they can give better advice, signposting and introductory services to their clients.

THE ROLE OF THE BANK IS TO WORK WITH PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS SUCH AS ACCOUNTANTS, LAWYERS, SUPPORT AGENCIES AND BUSINESS CONSULTANTS TO ENSURE THAT EVERY SMALL BUSINESS HAS THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS ACCESSING THE RIGHT TYPE OF ADVICE AND SUPPORT Gary Lumbey: Director of Small Business Banking at Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks “The era of the traditional bank manager, who understands the local market and can make lending decisions, as well as giving valuable advice would be a welcome return for many small businesses, and this is where we believe we can truly add value.”

Gary is determined to reinstate the importance of relationship and ‘trusted advisor’ status in the Banks’ Relationship Managers. He says, “We are improving the empowerment, training and proactivity of all our relationship managers. It’s no longer good enough just to offer traditional transactional services to small business customers, they need more than that. They need to be given constructive advice about where to get appropriate help in putting funding packages together, in exporting and marketing to grow their

businesses and in accessing mentoring services to give them that much needed in depth support.”

“The role of the Bank is to work with professional advisors such as accountants, lawyers, support agencies and business consultants to ensure that every small business has the best chance of success - accessing the right type of advice and support. But in an era of reducing public-funded small business support, the help available to business owners at no cost is reducing, so help finding the best advice is vital.”

Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks is launching its new small business proposition in the New Year, which will give a range of free banking and added value services to small business customers. If you’re looking to switch banks, or have a new start-up, and would like to hear more about how we could help you succeed, call Gary Lumby, on 0113 807 2423/2377 or contact your local branch or business manager.

Call Gary Lumby on 0113 8072423/2377 or visit www.ybonline.co.uk/business

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NEWS

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publisher Emerald as part of a £1m ongoing contract.

More than 3,000 university libraries worldwide, and 95 of the world’s top 100 business schools subscribe to Emerald’s journals.

The company also has operations in every continent, and wanted to improve the efficiency of its in-house development team.

The IT consultancy’s solution included a subscription-based web portal, which now enjoys an average of two million downloads per month. As part of the five-year contract, Claritas also provided security and round-the-clock support to ensure the success of the project.

Arachnological Society to host its European Congress, to be held in York in August 2014. The event, which has previously been held in a wide range of venues throughout Europe, will see more than 125 arachnological experts stay in York for one week.

>> Employment partner calls at Clarion Sarah Tahamtani has joined Leeds legal firm Clarion as a partner.

She joins from Cobbetts where she trained and qualified, rising to the position of legal director.

She has 11 years’ extensive experience in employment tribunal advocacy.

>> Two more for the region Two new annual conferences have agreed to take place in the region after successful negotiations by conference desk staff.

The British Association of Hand Therapists (BAHT) will host its annual conference at the Carriageworks in Leeds in October 2011. More than 120 delegates will attend the conference in the city which will look at how to advance and promote the study and general knowledge of the treatment of the hand.

BAHT conference organiser Nick Gape said: “BAHT has members throughout the UK and we like to vary the location of our annual conference. The choice of venues in Leeds is excellent and in The Carriageworks we’ve found an ideal setting.”

Meanwhile, the University of York has secured a contract with the British

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

>> Another gong for Shepherd’s Purse Artisan cheese maker Shepherds Purse’s Yorkshire Blue cheese has won a gold award at this year’s World Cheese Awards, hosted at the recent BBC Good Food Show.

Judges at the awards, now in their 22nd year, had to choose between more than 2,600 cheeses from 29 countries.

>> Partial rescue at Wakefield IT Nine jobs which had been threatened after the collapse of a Wakefield software firm have been safeguarded after lawyers acting for the company’s administrators managed to sell the intellectual property behind some of its technology to a US company.

DBAM Systems, which developed products and services to maximise the efficiency of data flow across wide area networks,

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ceased trading earlier this year with an initial 22 jobs losses after struggling with international sales.

Administrators Andrew Wood and Chris White, appointed legal firm hlw to see if any rights were worth retrieving.

The team from the Leeds and Sheffieldbased practice managed to sell the intellectual property behind the company’s EP range – which extends the bandwidth of any application – to SonicWALL, of San Jose, California.

UK corporate valuation and asset management firm Charterfields was brought in to handle the marketing of the £2.6m deal, which enabled the administrators to return some monies to investors and creditors, Nine DBAM Systems employees who originally lost their jobs, but assisted the administration team, will now transfer to the US to work with SonicWALL. HLW partner Ashley Wood, who led the team with Chris Wilson, said: “It was a somewhat unusual deal in these times in that it was not a pre-pack administration sale where a deal is done quickly.

“In order to maximise the value, the administrators had a strategy of securing the relevant IP rights, looking to sell the EP business among worldwide interested parties and securing a value based upon potential rather than income received.

Work continues on attempts to sell another one of DBAM’s products, Cloudspeed, which was not part of the latest sale.

>> Bagel Nash benefits from pause Leeds-based sandwich bar chain Bagel Nash says it is ready to expand again after a two-year halt that nonetheless has seen a big rise in sales.

In 2008, the company launched five new retail outlets in six months, but then called a halt and decided to concentrate on existing business due to the recession.

Director Karen Mizrahi reports that as a result sales went up 20% in the year to April 2010, while current year sales are 2% ahead as well.

She said: “While we don’t anticipate returning

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to the rate of openings we had in 2008, we’re now ready for another major drive forward from our current base of 11 outlets.

“We’ve virtually covered our home city Leeds and believe we can repeat this cluster pattern in other cities – we’ve already made a start in York and Manchester.”

The baker is now producing more than a million bagels a month.

News continued on page 14

We’re now ready for another major drive forward from our current base of 11 outlets

NEWS

>> Two significant moves at PWC Toby Underwood, right, has been made a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ northern business recovery services team.

He has over 20 years’ experience working with financially distressed companies, most recently heading BDO’s Leeds business restructuring team. He works across a variety of sectors, with particular emphasis in property, notably acting as joint administrator over the Dawnay Day group of companies.

At the same time PWC has appointed Dan Stott to lead a team of regional business modelling experts. Stott will work with local companies to help them understand the business’ drivers and the impact of key decisions on their future performance.

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NEWS

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>> Pavilion is well met The new Carnegie Pavilion at Headingley has become the latest venue to be managed by Well Met Conferencing.

The new pavilion, designed by Will Alsop of Alsop Architects, provides media and players’ facilities, hospitality and teaching facilities all under one roof.

It also offers a number of spaces for conferences and events for up to 150 delegates with 14 rooms available. These include one lecture theatre and several smaller

>> Brunt to market Raithwaite Hall York-based developer Skelwith Group today has appointed Nigel Brunt as director of sales and marketing for its 80-acre development Raithwaite Hall Country Retreat in Sandsend, North Yorkshire.

Brunt who has over 15 years’ experience within the hotel and catering industry. He was previously director of sales and marketing at York’s Cedar Court Grand Hotel and Spa, following senior positions at Cliveden, The Oxfordshire and Lensbury.

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rooms with excellent views across the pitch.

Kate Pitcher, business development manager for Well Met Conferencing, said: “The new Carnegie Pavilion is a fantastic addition for the city as it really is the first of its kind – a real dual-use building giving sporting professional and conference organisers access to state-of-the-art shared space. I’m confident that the new facility will be a huge hit with event organisers.”

The pavilion, which was built by BAM

>> Butterfield joins Gordons Law firm Gordons has recruited Kate Butterfield, a planning and environmental law expert who was formerly a director at Cobbetts, to its property team.

Butterfield has been involved in some of the region’s most high profile developments, including Bridgewater Place the the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds.

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Construction, has achieved a BREEAM “excellent” rating for environmental quality. It has replaced the existing Yorkshire County Cricket Club media and player facilities at Headingley Carnegie Stadium and will enable the venue to continue to host international fixtures.

The project was supported by Yorkshire Forward, Leeds City Council, HSBC, The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Sport England.

>> Tourism winner comes through Welcome to Yorkshire has beaten competition from other tourism promoters right around the world to win the World’s Leading Marketing Campaign award at a ceremony in London.

The tourism authority’s “A long weekend in Yorkshire isn’t long enough” campaign beat off finalists Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Etihad Airways, Johannesburg Tourism Company, Kuoni Group, Qatar Airways and Visit Scotland to win the award at the World

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Travel Awards ceremony. The award comes on the back of what the authority claims is a record-breaking 18 months for the county.

It says corporate business has topped £7.2m in the last six months and visitor numbers are up 22%, compared to a 12% increase in the UK as a whole.

Some 25 million people have seen the Welcome to Yorkshire marketing campaigns, spreading the word about the fantastic products and attractions available in the county.

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity said: “We are the best tourism agency in the UK without a doubt and that is because we have such a wonderful county to promote and such wonderful businesses to work with.”

John Penrose MP, minister for tourism and heritage, said: “Welcome to Yorkshire’s hard work and continued enthusiasm has paid off as the only tourist board in England to be

nominated in this category. This is not only great news for Yorkshire but for the whole country too.”

>> Law joins Glendinning Guiseley-based insurance broker and independent financial adviser JG Glendinning has appointed Nigel Law as operations director. He joins from UK General, formerly Rural Insurance, where he was head of operations.

>> Gloria turns to Yorkshire Harrogate law firm Stowe Family Law’s senior partner has contributed a section about legal rights to a new book by TV presenter Gloria Hunniford about being a grandparent.

Gloria Hunniford’s publishers approached

NEWS

Marilyn Stowe earlier this year to write the chapter in Glorious Grandparenting.

The family lawyer had just finished advising Coronation Street producers on a complicated storyline involving grandparents’ legal rights.

>> Curry cuisine at Chatsworth Curry Cuisine is to start supplying it’s traditional handmade chutneys and pickles to the farm shop at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

The shop, which was established by the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire in 1977, is to stock the Dewsbury company’s premium luxury mango chutney, beetroot chutney, hot lime pickle, rhubarb and mango pickle, aubergine pickle and Indian continued on page 16

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BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

NEWS

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tomato pickle. Paresh Tejura, Curry Cuisine’s operations director, said: “We know the shop only offers quality produce fresh from the estate, tenant farms, local suppliers and small British regional food producers, so we feel privileged to be among such quality suppliers.”

>> Wall for Elland Road community Leeds-based large format display company, Digital Plus, has created and installed a new football wall goal target for npower’s Home Team Heroes programme at Beggar’s Hill near Leeds United’s Elland Road ground.

The transformation of the hill was part of npower’s £2m initiative to help communities based around Football League club stadiums.

The makeover was undertaken by npower volunteers to tidy and transform the area into a clean, safe environment for local children to enjoy a game of football.

This giant wall measures 3 x 2.5 metres and is constructed from pressure-treated timber providing protection against decay.

It was printed up with the npower and the Home Team Heroes logos in Digital Plus’ Bramley printworks.

Digital Plus projects director John Webster said: “We have used our unique LibertyHD method for this structure, proving we can print on most material. This specialised process is ideal for large objects such as this.”

>> Van Mildert in Harrogate Upmarket fashion retailer Van Mildert has opened a branch in Harrogate – its most southerly branch to date.

Some £400,000 has been spent on refitting the 2,000 sq ft store on Harrogate’s Princes Street.

The company, owned by brothers Eric and Cyril Williams, already has five stores further north in York and Darlington, two in Durham, and at Gateshead’s Metrocentre. The shop stocks over 70 brands, including Vivienne Westwood, Aquascutum, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Paul Smith, Luke, Lyle & Scott, and Belstaff.

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>> Spa refurb on schedule Scarborough Borough Council says the £6.5m refurbishment of Scarborough Spa is due to be completed in spring this year and should allow the Grade II-listed Victorian building to stage larger and more varied events.

On completion, the building will have the capacity to host more than 1,600 delegates with a 2,000 sq m exhibition space, with full in-house sound and visual service and a dedicated banqueting team. It will also have the flexibility to host several events at the same time.

Janet Deacon, tourism manager for Scarborough Borough Council, said: “The redevelopment of the venue is already resulting in a great deal of interest from new customers.

She said the Spa had remained open throughout the redevelopment, and had hosted some major events over the summer and autumn, including the annual conference of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), a three-day event involving 700 delegates.

>> JCT600 in record sponsorship JCT600 has signed up to support the Bradford Bulls for the tenth year in a row – the longest sponsorship in Super League history.

The motor retailer will now work closely with the Bulls over the next 12 months to develop a number of community and sport-led initiatives that will strengthen the club’s forthcoming league campaign.

JCT600 chief executive John Tordoff said: “The Bradford Bulls are a well-loved institution in our area and with their strong sense of community, determination and grit, the team represents all the values that JCT600 stands for.

>> Clear as beer Keighley brewer Timothy Taylor has won a Crystal Mark from the Plain English Campaign for its new pub tenancy agreements.

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The Crystal Mark is designed to be a standard for organisations to aim for if they want to provide the clearest possible information.

Andrew Daykin, the brewer’s tied estate manager, instructed Gordons commercial property solicitor Steven Scott earlier this year to achieve the standard when it became time to update and rationalise the business’s existing tenancy agreements.

>> Promote your PA There is still time – just – to enter your PA for an awards scheme designed to reward the region’s best secretaries and personal assistants.

The Queens Hotel has launched the Yorkshire PA of the Year Award, and is inviting all Yorkshire companies to nominate people for one of six awards that are up for grabs, including overall PA of the Year.

Other categories include Lifetime Achievement and an Above And Beyond category.

All entries will be judged by a panel that

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includes Deborah Green, chief executive of Marketing Leeds.

The winners will be revealed at a special ceremony at the hotel on February 10 2011.

David Kararens, Queens Hotel general manager, said: “PAs are worth their weight in gold and are often the unsung heroes in a company, so we wanted to acknowledge and honour them by way of our awards.

“Anyone can nominate a PA they think is worthy of an award and we’re confident that we’ll get inundated with nominations from companies and organisations throughout Yorkshire who want to give them special recognition. Our judges will be looking for that person who goes the extra mile and consistently shows initiative and adaptability.”

To make your nomination, go to www. qconferences.co.uk/paoftheyear

>> Weetwood knows its people Weetwood Hall has become the first hotel in the Yorkshire and Humber region to achieve the Investors in People (IIP) Gold status, the most recognised accolade in the UK for business improvement through people.

The accolade means the hotel is now part of the top 1% of UK organisations recognised by IIP. To achieve it the hotel had to undergo a rigorous assessment with Investors in People reviewing at least 166 evidence requirements over and above the standard level.

>> Fears despite fall in distress figures The number of Yorkshire companies seeking an arrangement with HMRC over tax payments has more than halved in the past year, official figures reveal.

But an insolvency expert in the region is warning that that does not necessarily mean Yorkshire’s business community is out of trouble following the recession.

Office of National Statistics figures released at the end of October suggest that the number of Yorkshire companies seeking arrangements

NEWS

>> From little acorns

Big lift: Alan Parry, Keighley Town Council, left, and Dave Belmont, Acorn Stairlifts

with the HMRC’s Business Support Scheme, otherwise known as Time to Pay, had fallen in a year from 19,400 to 8,480, with the total value of arrangements falling from £320m to £140m.

Time to Pay aims to give small companies in particular more time to pay their taxes so as to avoid falling into administration as a result.

Andrew Walker, Yorkshire chairman of the insolvency body RC, agreed that such a fall “reflects more favourable conditions for business post-recession”.

But he warned that overall the figures did not show how many businesses within the arrangements were “zombie” businesses – able to service their debts as a result of being in an arrangement, but not to fund expansion.

And he warned that the figures did not reveal how many businesses had asked to extend their arrangements – suggesting they were in very bad way financially.

“We understand that the number of repeated deferrals increased considerably nationally from around 33,000 in September 2009 to 79,000 by early 2010,” said. Walker “Without new figures, it is impossible to tell how many companies under the Time to Pay banner are severely distressed and at risk of insolvency.”

>> A hearing hand The Hearing Company, a hearing aid retailer, has contracted Epiphany Solutions to help improve its online search

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Acorn Stairlifts, the biggest private sector employer in Airedale, has donated two stairlifts to nominated local people as part of Keighley Town Council’s Business in Action Initiative.

Since the start of 2010 over 100 companies have taken part in the initiative, which sees them donate products and services to the local community.

One stairlift went to a local resident who was having difficulty going up and downstairs to the bathroom. The second went to the new headquarters of the Royal British Legion in Keighley town centre.

rankings and enquiry rates. The Leedsbased consultancy will be overseeing all search engine marketing for The Hearing Company, which has more than 300 stores nationwide.

Vroom: Left to right: Oliver Clarkson, Waseem Afsar, Sandy Bates and Rachel Kiddle – Oracle Finance’s new recruits

>> Four more for Oracle Knaresborough-based vehicle finance company Oracle Finance has added four new members to its team.

Oliver Clarkson, who previously worked in real estate and web sales, and former estate agent Rachel Kiddle have joined as account manager at the company, which last year financed more than £250m worth of high-value cars.

Kiddle has already landed a deal financing a new Bentley Mulsanne at a cost price of £230,000.

Sandy Bates and Waseem Afsar join the Oracle team fresh from university.

BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

COMPANY PROFILE

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Fantastic Media cement five years of continued growth with a move to new premeses.

PEOPLE POWER

I

N JUST five short years, Fantastic Media has caused quite a stir within the Yorkshire marketing services industry. After bursting onto the scene in 2006, Fantastic has experienced consistent growth and has become a major player and one of the best known integrated marketing agencies in the region.

Fantastic is cementing five years continuous growth by moving to bespoke offices in a six figure investment by the firm. Increased workspace, additional health facilities and infrastructure upgrades will improve quality, productivity and value for clients in a move which will kick start 2011.

The firm has enjoyed substantial growth since founder, Andy Hobson started the business which celebrates its fifth birthday this month. The company will be utilising the additional space by introducing new team members to strengthen the agency and to ensure that growth throughout 2011 continues at the same pace.

The company already offers the full marketing mix of services from strategic planning to web, graphic design, online marketing, print and PR for national and international clients including: Card Factory, Bonmarche, Chadwick Lawrence

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FANTASTIC IS CHANNEL NEUTRAL AND SO CAN CREATE A BESPOKE STRATEGY FOR EACH CLIENT USING THE MOST EFFECTIVE TOOLS WITHIN THE MARKETING MIX Solicitors, Northern Commercials, Paxman Coolers, Bedford Transport, and several National League football clubs.

Fantastic recently announced its intention to invest in young local people by delivering mentoring courses with schools, colleges and universities in the region and has already established links with various education providers.

Based around three core values, Fantastic is cautious never to lose sight of what makes it successful: People, Results, Value.

Hobson explains: “People are at the heart of everything we do. We never underestimate the power of positive relationships and actively work to become an integral part of each and every clients’ team.

“Results are absolutely essential in our business.

We report to each client every month with a focus on delivering tangible results, which help to

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achieve the overall objectives of the business.

“Our value comes from the fact that each and every client has access to a truly full service team of professionals housed under one roof.

Fantastic is channel neutral and so can create a bespoke strategy for each client using the most effective tools within the marketing mix.

This comes at a fraction of the cost of engaging all these services individually. It also means that marketing is managed from a central point and truly integrated.

“The investment in our environment and infrastructure signals our intention to be around for a while and become the leading results driven, full service marketing business in Yorkshire. We invest in our people who invest in our clients which in turn delivers results! Couple this with the fact that we offer value and I know we have a business which will continue its growth model through 2011.”

Marketing / Advertising / PR / Design / Web / Social Media / Events / Print

peop e resu ts va ue “In choosing Fantastic Media we’ve formed a partnership with people we can trust.”

Richard Hayes, Card Factory

“As a result of Fantastic’s marketing campaign, online traffic increased by 41%.”

what does your marketing agency deliver?

Donald Angus, Bonmarché

“Fantastic increased our marketing activity, yet still cut our marketing spend by a quarter giving us real value.”

Jeremy Garside, Chadwick Lawrence

08450 176 090 www.fantasticmedia.co.uk

ENTREPRENEUR

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in association with

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ENTREPRENEUR

UNIFORMITY MEANS STABILITY One man’s vision of schoolwear manufacture as a niche area has revived a sector of the Yorkshire textiles business Bernard Bunting, former soldier, IT whizz kid, and now at the age of 53 owner of a school uniform supplier, is quite ready to admit his mistakes. The first of these was in the very early 1990s, when having successfully sold off his GP software business to Reuters, he called a halt to his next business idea – selling mobile data – mainly because the country was then deep in recession.

Even with big name clients like Mars taking an interest, he put the idea “on the back burner”.

“I really thought that now was the time to get

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out of computers,” he says. “I couldn’t face the thought of starting again. What a mistake that was!”

It certainly was, when you consider the meteoric growth the mobile data industry has seen since then.

His next oversight came only a few years later.

That was when he and his wife were busy building up the Children’s Warehouse, an internet and mail order children’s clothes business which was heavily dependent for its success on constantly mining a customer >>

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ENTREPRENEUR

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We had complementary products. When I put the first Hamley’s catalogue out, the staff there said they could not believe the number of radio-controlled aircraft they were selling straight off the page

database they had developed. Among high profile customers were Edwina Dunn and Clive Humby, of marketing agency Dunnhumby, and Bunting suspects it was seeing how his business operated that gave Dunnhumby the idea for its most famous product, the Tesco Clubcard. Earlier this year Dunn and Humby stepped down from the company they founded, after taking their share of a £17m dividend.

“They made something of it,” says Bunting.

“We didn’t.”

But this is not the story of one of life’s also-rans. Bunting still has a successful business career behind him, including a stint at being home shopping director for toy store

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Hamleys. And he believes his latest venture, Perry Uniform, which already turns over around £2m, could be on the point of turning into a serious money spinner. Yes, that’s right; a clothes manufacturer making serious profits in Leeds.

Even he would admit that when he first came to look at the business in 2007, the idea of it being a success seemed unlikely. After all, Perry Clothes, as it was then called, was in administration. It was based, as he admits in a “clapped out mission hall in Armley, with 110 pieces of plant some of which dated back to the 19th century”.

He says: “Even as a children’s clothes supplier, I had never heard of them, never been to see

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them, and it wasn’t until I took the widow of the founder out to lunch last year that I learned the full history of the company.

“It had been set up in 1946 as general clothiers. Of course that was a huge industry in Leeds then. The founder had just come out of the services, and he set up in Armley. In the late 1950s he met up with Peter Franklin, a textiles agent who had originally worked for Trutex, another schoolwear supplier.

Franklin started going around independent schools introducing himself, and Perry would make the garments. They built up a £1m-turnover business.

“Perry died at his desk in 2004, aged 84. He was still going strong – apparently he would only take Wednesdays off for a game of golf.

His widow was not equipped to take the business on, so they got two members of staff to do it. To call them managers would be an exaggeration. One was an experienced machinist and the other was a part-trained book-keeper. They didn’t have the experience or the vision to make the company survive.

Stock levels doubled, the wage bill trebled, and the rest was fairly predictable.”

Bunting came across the company as part of a tour he was making to find out more about the cluster of “strange northern companies” he had noticed while managing the Children’s Warehouse which was still based in the north and producing schoolwear – companies like Trutex, Banner and David Luke.

Calling these companies “strange” isn’t southern snobbery speaking – Bunting is originally from Yorkshire. While they may not be household names, they should be familiar to anyone who has struggled to get their child dressed on a school morning. Bunting was interested in how they worked.

The Children’s Warehouse had itself got into schoolwear as a means of diversifying out of conventional childrenswear.

The company had already tried diversifying into supplying toys and that was the reason why Bunting ended up working for Hamley’s.

“I read in the Financial Times that Hamleys were in trouble and a new guy called Simon Burke – Richard Branson’s left-hand man – had been parachuted in to try to save it,” he says.

“So I dropped him a line, explaining that we had this great database focused on what

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ENTREPRENEUR

The Children’s Warehouse diversified from conventional childrenwear into schoolwear should be a Hamleys customer, that we had been running mail order for ten years, we were in Chiswick, whereas he was in Regent Street with very limited space, so we could create Hamleys.com. It was at the height of the dot com boom. Simon – to his great credit in a corporate environment – took me on as home shopping director while still allowing me to be at the Children’s Warehouse.

“We did, after all, have complementary products. When I put the first Hamley’s catalogue out, the staff there said they could not believe the number of radiocontrolled aircraft they were selling straight off the page.”

The problem was that while such as system

worked for toys, it wasn’t so great for children’s clothes.

“What didn’t work was the cross-fertilisation on the mailing list,” he says. “The Hamley’s customer is to a large extent a tourist.”

So when Simon Burke’s attempt to take over Hamley’s himself bit the dust and he moved on, Bunting too felt that it was time to go off “on a tangent” and his company moved into producing schoolwear.

He says: “We had a database of 250,000 addresses, many of which were parents of children going to mostly London day prep schools, so we got asked by those schools to supply components of their uniform. We saw the repeatability you could get with sales of

23

school uniform. And obviously that was somewhere we can apply our distance-selling skills. After all, not many retailers had websites in the year 2000. In contrast, we had put our first website up in 1996 – pretty good considering that in 1995 Microsoft launched Windows without even mentioning the word internet.”

It was with such a background that Bunting came to acquire Perry Clothes. The idea initially was to merge the two companies and have two bases – London and Leeds. But 18 months later when the company needed more space he was persuaded to relocate both operations into new 20,000 sq ft premises in Stanningley. He invested £300,000 into the new factory – all of his own money. Even then, he said, he still saw the business as mainly a lifestyle operation.

But he has since changed his mind. Why? Largely because of changes he sees in the international market. With budget-conscious parent customers in mind, childrenswear in general, and schoolwear in particular has been relentlessly outsourcing in recent years. And we do mean relentlessly. This writer remembers meeting a schoolwear supplier ten years ago who had just got back from a sourcing trip to Colombia. The country was then and still is suffering the worst ravages of a civil war, and the supplier had been going to see factories in towns that were only accessible by air as a result. But even that was felt to be more commercially viable than maintaining production in England.

Bunting thinks such far-flung ventures will only end in disaster. By contrast, Perry Uniform manufactures 20% of all the uniforms it supplies in the Armley factory, with a further 30% manufactured in Portugal – no further than that. The rest is wholesale.

He says: “When I first came into this industry some of our competitors were really starting to struggle because they were going to Eastern Europe to source goods and the quality coming back was a shambles.”

Many companies have also been attracted by China, too. But he says: “I know a senior businessman in this sector who has just returned from China and is very worried about lack of capacity and material and labour rates.” >>

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ENTREPRENEUR

You really have to get it 100% right.

Having just one component not available gives you a massive problem

He says once you look at the figures it is hardly surprising that Chinese manufacturers have not been rushing to build capacity to make clothes for English schoolchildren. Put simply, they have bigger fish to fry.

“The national market for schoolwear is around £350m in UK,” he says. “Once you take out the portion going to the likes of Asda, my estimate of the size of the independent sector is £75m.

“That is a drop in the ocean on the global scale. Even if you have a 1,000 pupil school across ten years, that is a very small volume of pieces you are making.”

Yet it is precisely the niche quality of this market, he says, and its particular vagaries,

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that make it an ideal target for what’s left of Leeds manufacturing to aim at.

“If you want a white polo shirt in big volumes, China has a role,” he says. “But it will be difficult to source there for specific merchandise. You have consumer who is becoming very savvy on the internet. They expect delivery tomorrow. You combine that with a highly seasonal business, where most turnover is between June and September.

Once you take account of lead time and the fact that many factories close in August, if you are only sensing demand in June or July and think you can get finished goods back by September it just isn’t going to happen.”

In contrast, Perry Uniform can easily scale up to cope with such a peak demand.

“My headcount at the end of the year is half what it would be in August,” he says. “I can scale it up and down because I have Leeds University just down the valley – a very educated student body who are keen during the summer holidays to earn a bit of extra money in the warehouse.”

And if there is a problem with a garment not manufactured on site, he says, “I can be in Oporto by lunchtime”.

Right on cue he shows me a story from the Sun (wittily headlined “Queue-niform”) about parents having to wait for four hours to be served at one shop this summer. Perry, in comparison, sells mainly over the internet or directly into the school’s own shop.

The real issue about schoolwear, he says, is that it is a qualitative business, not a quantitative one.

“You really have got to get it 100% right,” he says, “Having just one component not available gives you a massive problem. John Lewis is probably our main competitor, but they struggle in their schools to employ a level of service. To try to provide school uniform for such a narrow period of time is difficult. They are looking at the internet, but very few people have the level of logistics to deal with it that we have.”

And that is why he now feels the time is right for the £2m business to scale up.

“We began that earlier this year with the added flexibility to cater for outsize garments,” he says. “It may be tongue in cheek to say that I can make a blazer

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in an hour, but it is the case.”

He senses increasing demand too, with school’s eager to strengthen their brand by specifying bolder and better quality uniforms.

It’s no surprise to learn that Perry supplies Christ’s Hospital, the private school in Sussex where boys and girls still wear black and yellow cloaks down below the knees.

But as the son of a sculptor who taught at York Art School for 50 years, Bunting is very proud that all this is happening in Yorkshire.

Alongside the story about the school uniforms, he has a cutting from another paper of two boys in school blazers leaving a wreath at the Cenotaph during the Remembrance Day service this year. As a former solider who had many tours in Northern Ireland, he was marching there too.

“Those blazers were spun in Huddersfield, woven in Bradford, dyed in Yorkshire, and came here to be cut,” he says.

And with the company’s 40-strong workforce ageing, he is proud that it has just taken two teenagers through an apprenticeship too.

Yorkshire manufacturing, as far as this man is concerned, is certainly not dying. n

Lee & Priestley’s specialist Entrepreneur Team works with clients as a strategic partner, offering a unique blend of legal, business and entrepreneurial expertise.

Lee & Priestley acts for businesses across a broad range of industries and has a particular reputation for entrepreneurial expertise in the new media, media, internet, technology, creative, leisure, entertainment and healthcare sectors.

Jonathan Oxley, Senior Partner, Lee & Priestley LLP Tel: 0845 129 2300 10-12 East Parade, Leeds, LS1 2AJ www.leepriestley.com

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COMPANY PROFILE

KTPs are government-backed and encourage companies that don’t normally work with universities to employ a postgraduate student and gain direct access to university scientists and other expertise to improve their business.

PIE PERFECTION

L

IBERTY Horner is the first trainee graduate that pork pie manufacturer, Vale of Mowbray, has taken on and she is already making her mark.

For the 23-year-old Food Science and Nutrition graduate from Stockton-onTees has helped to save the company £100,000 by reducing waste since joining as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) associate and is now working on saving a further £100,000 from current projects.

“And that’s just for starters”, says Liberty, who has many more ideas Liberty Horner pictured with Sheree Walker at the pork pie company. about helping the firm improve its business operation.

She joined the company based in Leeming Bar, support. And very importantly, they often get North Yorkshire, in 2008, after briefly working at offered a permanent contract when the two-year Newcastle Brewery as a microbiologist.

KTP comes to an end. In Liberty’s case, she’s now “I saw details of the Teesside University KTP – or the firm’s Product Improvement Co-ordinator at Knowledge Transfer Partnership to give the the Vale of Mowbray. scheme its full title – and immediately realised it Sheree Walker, the company’s Production Manager, was the ideal next move for me”, said Liberty. has no doubt about the value of having Liberty KTPs are government-backed and encourage and experts from the University acting as companies that don’t normally work with trouble-shooters and a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ and she universities to employ a post-graduate student recommends the KTP scheme to any business and gain direct access to university scientists and needing help and advice with those ‘need-to-do’ other expertise to improve their business. problems that never seem to get done.

Academics benefit from applying theory to real live “She’s already saved us a small fortune by projects and gain up-to-date experience of the changing the way we dispose of waste packaging commercial world which they can use in their from raw materials such as flour and now she’s teaching and research. looking at new ways to maintain the perfect pastry For graduates like Liberty, it is a ‘win-win’ and helping us to ensure greater consistency in situation. They get their first foot on their chosen both measurement and quality control in the career ladder while studying up to Master’s level pie-making process”, explained Sheree.

Spark BQ mag band:Layout 1 21/12/10 09:55 Page 1 or beyond and receive training and financial Liberty has worked closely with her Teesside

A spark of inspiration

www.tees.ac.uk/spark

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University supervisor, Dr Liam 0’Hare, a biochemist and food scientist, on the project while working towards her Master of Research in Science (MRes) degree – concentrating on pastry science.

Dr O’Hare, says: “Liberty has been a great KTP Associate. She’s done lots of innovative things off her own back - and together we’ve helped the company to introduce some new technology and new ways of working to better measure and monitor quality assurance and quality control.”

An energy audit was carried out with Teesside University’s CLEMANCE environmental management team using government-funded Innovation Vouchers, and the University’s forensic scientists and the Teesside Manufacturing Centre have also begun working with the company, which makes around one million pork pies every week.

Liberty has even helped to rejuvenate the in-house newsletter, The Monthly Trotter.

John Gatenby, Managing Director of the company, said: “We’re always striving to make the perfect pie and achieve greater consistency from one pie to the next. Having access to the wide range of resources at the University has been an enormous help and we wish to continue working with Teesside in the future. Liberty has been a great addition to the team. She’s got a really creative approach and is always looking for ways we can improve the business.”

For more information contact Emma Detchon, on 01642 384036, or email ktp@tees.ac.uk

The University for BUSINESS

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

AS I SEE IT

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SIZE DOESN’T MATTER IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE More than nine out of ten small businesses in Yorkshire don’t even bother looking overseas for trade. They are missing a trick – both for exporting and sourcing – says Maggie Choo With many businesses still feeling the impact of the recession it’s no surprise that the outlook for 2011 is less than rosy. Without a change in economic conditions, many small and medium businesses – particularly those operating with small teams and limited resources – could cease trading altogether.

More than ever, reducing operating costs and driving revenues are essential to survival.

It will be the savvy businesses which are willing to adapt their approach that will come out on top.

One obvious way of finding new revenues is to diversify your product or service offering and grow your customer base. To this end, all businesses should be considering how they can expand beyond the UK to exploit opportunities in overseas markets. A recent survey my organisation commissioned on 1,400 small and medium sized businesses across the UK found that 92% of businesses in Yorkshire fail to trade with countries outside the UK, with one in five considering themselves too small to do so. This common misconception amongst small businesses is alarming.

Language barriers and trust issues were the most widely perceived inhibitors to overseas trade, yet thousands of UK SMEs have already taken the leap and regularly communicate and do business with overseas partners through a mixture of instant messaging and email. Many also exchange photographs and video to illustrate their requirements, especially when more complex dialogue is required. The global adoption of online business tools has enabled

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

all businesses, however small, to reach out, connect and trade easily and securely online.

Businesses yet to embark on international trade often overestimate the difficulties and underestimate the payback. Largely thanks to the internet, opportunities have never been more abundant or varied. Small and medium sized businesses can now find all kinds of goods and supplies that are simply beyond the reach of those who largely operate offline.

By searching online and using trading platforms like Alibaba.com, businesses can quickly and easily connect with suppliers and manufacturers across the globe, significantly reducing their sourcing costs. Equally, for businesses looking to export, these platforms offer free access to a world of buyers who are just a couple of clicks away from finding you.

Currently the UK’s import growth still outweighs its exports, but as the recovery in UK export markets strengthens and sterling’s past depreciation boosts UK export volumes, the UK’s net trade is forecast to contribute positively to the growth of our economy.

The EU currently accounts for around 55% of UK visible exports and 40% of service exports.

Whilst businesses must continue to focus on trading with key European countries such as Germany, the current problems with some eurozone economies continue to present major risks to UK businesses. As a result, many forward-thinking businesses are embracing the fast growing BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. They currently have a much greater buying power.

What’s more, countries in the Far East are

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experiencing rapid growth, so British goods in virtually every sector are in demand thanks to their high quality and sophistication.

UK businesses must capitalise on this and be more ambitious in developing new markets.

The Government has promised to support small and medium business by maintaining the global network, re-focusing resources and working closely with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to align the UK with key international trade partners. This is essential if we are to win exports and create jobs for the British public and businesses need to take advantage of incentives on offer.

Companies that are embracing the global marketplace must be encouraged and held up as examples to other small and medium businesses in the UK. One such company is Portfolio Display, based in Elland, West Yorkshire. Specialists in the design and manufacture of display for the promotional industry, they wanted to take their business to the next level and increase manufacturing

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output and develop exports. They developed a plan that has seen training implemented throughout all departments of the company and enlisted the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) to implement an improvement project that has helped them develop their capacity and productivity.

Today they are working with UKTI to explore new markets abroad and through its Passport to Export programme they’ve selected which overseas markets they want to target and developed a long-term export strategy. The organisation is already making sales in Europe and America and exports look to account for an increasingly large part of their turnover in future.

However, opportunities to drive additional revenue don’t stop with exports. Everyone can benefit from finding lower priced, better quality products and services and keeping

costs down is a simple and effective way of driving up the bottom line.

Integral to getting the most competitive deal is sourcing the right supplier, but this in itself can be an expensive process. Small and medium businesses spend billions of pounds each year doing just that. In fact Department for Business, Innovation and Skills figures released in 2009 suggest that an astonishing 89% of small businesses in Yorkshire spend up to £1,000 every time they review a supplier.

Nearly a third of businesses conduct this review quarterly, thus incurring a cost of up to £4,000 per partner per year.

What’s more, despite 38% of Yorkshire businesses believing that a regular review of suppliers is vital to remaining competitive, a quarter rely solely on companies they have

AS I SEE IT

used before. This lack of proactivity will have a direct impact on the business. About 30% of businesses take up to a month to find a supplier that they are happy with – valuable time that could be spent driving sales, especially for organisations looking to bring new products to market within a critical time frame.

As an example, Huddersfield-based Wellhouse Leisure, converters of compact motorhomes, have proved that a proactive approach pays dividends. To combat a reduction in income when the recession hit in 2009 they decided to diversify their offering to include bodywork and service repairs on any motor vehicle as well as turning unsold stock into a small hire fleet. With market concerns growing over fuel prices and environmental issues, they also opted to offer a conversion on all petrol-driven vehicles to a less costly and greener liquified petroleum gas (LPG).

Aware that the problems in the vehicle industry were not confined to the UK, and that many European manufacturers in their sector had unsold stock on their forecourts, they struck a deal with a large German company to take 41 brand new motorhomes from a cancelled order. To date, a third of these have been sold, even though they are outside their usual market, and today the company has a much healthier cash flow across the business.

Small businesses need not be cut off from the global marketplace or feel that international business is only for big companies – trading abroad can be the path to greater security for your business as well as a channel for growth and success. For many, the rewards reaped from a smart international trading strategy can transform their fortunes forever. n Maggie Choo is EMEA director at trading platform alibaba.com

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

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There’s a new twist in the Leeds Arena saga and the city’s newest address – No1 Leeds – is sure to appeal, while elsewhere the redevelopment of historic Sunny Bank Mills gathers pace >> Beverley Park sold DTZ Investment Management has sold its freehold interest in Tokenspire Business Park in Beverley, East Yorkshire, to LaSalle Investment Management for £7m.

The sale price reflects a net initial yield of 11.19%.

The estate is located along Hull Road to the south of Beverley town centre and provides around 322,690 sq ft of industrial and office accommodation.

It is multi-let to more than 26 tenants.

James Lawlor, senior surveyor in investment at DTZ’s Leeds office, who advised on the deal, said: “This deal shows that investor appetite remains strong for secondary regional multi-let industrial investments, a trend we expect to see continuing into 2011.”

GVA Grimley advised LaSalle Investment Management.

>> Learning firm moves into Leeds Synapse Learning has opened its first office in Yorkshire by taking space in Evans Property Group’s Capitol House in Leeds.

The company, which specialises in career training for 15 to 19-year-olds, has taken 7,104 sq ft in the building on Russell Street on a five-year lease.

It already has eight other regional centres.

The deal was negotiated by Jones Lang LaSalle’s Leeds office.

Tom Brammeld, senior surveyor in Jones Lang LaSalle’s office agency team in Leeds, said: “Capitol House has long been popular with small and medium sized occupiers and this deal brings another quality tenant into the building and indeed the city.

“Occupier activity in the sub-10,000 sq ft office market has remained at a consistent level to 2008 and 2009; however with just three deals over 10,000 sq ft completed in Leeds so far this year this letting to Synapse Learning is significant.

Harlan Pollitt, property and development

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>> Council faces court over arena The saga over Leeds’s new arena has taken a new twist after one of the unsuccessful bidders to build the venue has started a High Court action against Leeds City Council.

Montpellier Estates filed a claim for deceit against the council as BQ was going to press.

The company, owned by Yorkshire entrepreneur Jan Fletcher, was one of two companies which submitted bids in 2008 to the council to build the much-vaunted venue.

It wanted to build the arena at a site in Sweet Street, while fellow-bidder GMI was promoting a site near Elland Road.

However, at the end of that year the council announced that it would instead be building the site itself on land it had acquired from Leeds Metropolitan University at Claypit Lane.

Montpellier Estates now claims the council had been secretly working up its own proposal from as early as 2007, and should have stopped the tender process as a result.

The company also claims it mothballed the 10-acre site in Sweet Street for at least 12 months and incurred extra costs in anticipation of winning the bid, after council officers repeatedly reassured it that the council did not want to build the arena itself.

And it claims that in making its final decision the council applied unfair weighting to make the Montpellier bid sound much worse than the Claypit Lane proposal.

In a rare public statement, Jan Fletcher said: “I am deeply saddened at the need to file this deceit case. No-one is more passionate about Leeds than I am. I have spent two years trying to work with Leeds City Council to find a solution to this claim, but we have now exhausted all options.

“The Government is relying on the private sector to pull this country out of the recession and play an active part in our city regions. That will only happen if the business community can have absolute confidence in any public procurement process, knowing it will be carried out strictly under European procurement law and be able to weigh up the genuine risks involved.”

A council spokesman said it considered the action to be “desperate and vexatious”.

manager at Evans Property Group, said: “Synapse’s arrival is an excellent occupier fit for Capitol House. I am confident it will kickstart further activity both there and in our newly-refurbished Minerva House next door.”

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Jones Lang LaSalle is joint leasing agents on Capitol House and Minerva House with CB Richard Ellis.

Commercial Property continued on page 28

5

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY >> JLL takes on three more Jones Lang LaSalle will be managing three more properties in Yorkshire after Staffordshire-based Caudwell Properties appointed the agency to manage its entire 920,000 sq ft UK property portfolio.

In Yorkshire the mandate comprises three single-let office and industrial investments: Riverside Court in Sheffield, Trax Park in Doncaster and a Londis distribution centre in South Elmsall near Wakefield.

The instruction follows Jones Lang LaSalle’s appointment earlier this year to manage Caudwell’s Hampshire Court scheme, a complex of three multi-let office buildings on an office park in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Alan Hutchinson, director in Jones Lang LaSalle’s property and asset management team in Leeds, said the deal was “a significant addition to the properties our national property and asset management team already manages”.

>> Knight Frank takes over at new No1 Knight Frank’s Leeds office has been appointed sole agent for the 122,000 sq ft office building formerly known as Latitude Red on Whitehall Road in Leeds city centre.

The building was the first acquisition in Leeds for owner IVG, which owns a range of buildings across the UK including London’s “Gherkin”.

The company has already renamed the building No1 Leeds, which IVG’s Matt Mason said was “a bold claim, but one which we believe reflects the buildings advanced specification, superior build quality and prominent location fronting Whitehall Road”.

Knight Frank has replaced previous agents BNP Paribas Real Estate and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Knight Frank’s Guy Cooke said: “We are delighted with this appointment. No1 Leeds is one of the finest office buildings in the city centre, providing arguably the most efficient, safest and best designed offices in Leeds right now.

“Offering up to 122,000 sq ft, in divisible floors of 15,500 sq ft, it is just nine minutes walk from Leeds train station.”

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>> Garforth sale nets 9% yield Elmfield Business Park in Garforth has been sold for £1.25m to Huddersfieldbased Royds Properties in a deal negotiated

by Knight Frank.

The price reflects a net initial yield for vendor Valad of just over 9% on the 22,000 sq ft park, which is a multi-let industrial estate.

Knight Frank advised Valad while Dove Haigh Phillips advised Royds Properties.

Andrew Harrison, senior investment surveyor in Knight Frank’s Leeds office , said: “We received strong interest in the property from a range of purchasers which shows the revival in investor demand for this type of product.

“The estate benefits from strong occupier demand with only two empty units and a location close to Yorkshire’s motorway network making it an attractive proposition for buyers seeking fundamentally good property.”

800 jobs in the area when Debenhams moves in in 2011.

The new Debenhams distribution centre joins similar outlets operated by Sainsbury’s, Eddie Stobart and Kingspan at the Sherburn-in-Elmet site.

The park is the largest speculatively built industrial warehouse scheme in the country, and following the Debenhams deal only three available units remain, ranging from 140,000 to 330,000 sq ft, Evander Properties director Neil Dickinson said: “The major investment by Debenhams is an excellent result for the region.”

>> Bridgewater space to let Jones Lang LaSalle’s office agency team in Leeds has been instructed to market 8,700 sq ft of office space on the third floor of Bridgewater Place in Leeds.

Senior surveyor Tom Brammeld said: “The space comprises elements of the east and west wings which means that both suites are capable of being occupied as a whole or separately.

The agency is quoting a rent of £26 per sq ft.

>> Debenhams in biggest deal Debenhams has leased a 667,000 sq ft warehouse unit and 12,452 sq ft of accompanying office space at the Sherburn Distribution Park in Selby in what DTZ claims is the largest warehouse disposal in Yorkshire in 2010.

Acting on behalf of owner Evander Properties, DTZ negotiated the 27-year lease which will see the creation of around

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Apollo landing: Charlie Cudworth

>> York office already expanding Apollo House, a serviced offices building in the centre of York, is planning to expand after reaching capacity just nine months after opening.

IT systems provider Propalms has relocated to the building from an out-of-town location, taking 15 desks over three suites. Its arrival means most of the ground floor is now let to a range of tenants, including Logistics Solutions International, Modular Sales and Principal Capital Investment Trust.

Prospect Business Centres, the building’s owner, is now refurbishing the first and second floors.

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY currently owns the 18,000 sq ft Prospect House on Sovereign Street, and the 22,000 sq ft Fountain House.

>> Five more for Seacroft

New force: Left to right, Stephen Holliday of Adair Paxton, Neil Thornber of Neil Thornber Commercial, and Simon Dalingwater of Adair Paxton outside The Studios at Glasshougton, a 4,000 sq. ft office scheme which is represented by Neil Thornber Commercial

>> Adair Paxton merger creates geographic span Adair Paxton, an agency with offices in Leeds city centre and Horsforth, has taken over Wetherby-based Neil Thornber Commercial.

The residential and commercial agency believes the merger will widen its geographical coverage, with Neil Thornber having built up business covering territory to the east of Leeds, including Castleford, Pontefract, Wakefield and surrounding areas.

Before establishing the Wetherby office, Neil Thornber was a partner of Harrisons Commercial in Castleford.

Adair Paxton partner Simon Dalingwater said: “Neil brings with him a wealth of experience in facilitating major property deals, and has established a very well regarded reputation in areas of Yorkshire where we are keen to develop further instructions and activity.”

Neil Thornber Commercial will retain its current identity and branding, just as Horsforth residential agency Wells & Co has continued to do since Adair Paxton took it over in 2008.

Adair Paxton was itself created in 1999 by the merger of Adair Davy and Paxtons, two agencies which had been in operation since the middle of the 19th century.

The company’s property management division is responsible for managing more than 100 residential schemes across the Yorkshire region, including Leeds city centre apartment blocks Merchants House, Aspect 14 and St George’s House.

Prospect Business Centres managing director Charlie Cudworth said: “Propalms needed a base which could provide top quality IT and connectivity services in a convenient location, all requirements which Apollo House was able to satisfy.

Located on the Monkgate roundabout at Heworth Green, Apollo House houses a variety of units of two to 50 desks. On completion,

the next two floors will bring another 10,000 sq ft of space to market.

When operating at capacity, the building will be home to up to 45 businesses over its three floors.

Established in 1980, Prospect Business Centres is Yorkshire’s longest-established serviced office provider. Apollo House is its first serviced office building outside Leeds, where it

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Five new tenants have taken space at ICAN’s Seacroft Industrial and Trade Park in Leeds.

Multinational Unilever has taken a 6,000 sq ft unit at £4 per sq ft at the park.

Joint agents Colliers International and Dove Haigh Phillips have also secured deals with Little Bees Play Centre for 6,000 sq ft, Angus Print for 4,000 sq ft and The Plastics Recycling Company for 11,000 sq ft, all with terms of £4.50 per square foot.

A further 10,000 sq ft is under offer to Branch Autobody Repairs on a freehold basis.

Simon Rhodes, head of industrial agency at Colliers International Leeds office said: “With the spate of recent deals, the estate has really been turned around in the last six months.

“Currently only one unit of around 6,000 sq ft remains available and we are seeing good levels of interest.”

The park fronts Coal Road on Leeds Outer Ring Road and is close to Junction 46 of the M1.

Existing tenants include Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Carillion.

ICAN is a joint venture between Canmoor and Invista Real Estate

>> Latimer joins DTZ Danny Latimer has moved to DTZ in Leeds from Lambert Smith Hampton.

Latimer’s appointment as a surveyor means DTZ in Leeds now offers a collective 38 years’ rating experience.

Latimer’s role will comprise negotiating business rates appeals on behalf of a wide range of clients, providing strategic rating advice and mitigating empty rates liabilities.

Gillian Oliver, DTZ’s rating director in Leeds, said: “Danny’s appointment will further enhance our expertise and the level of service provision we can offer our clients.”

Commercial Property continued on page 32

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY >> Four move in at Sunny Bank Four new tenants have moved into Sunny Bank Mills, a family-owned building in Farsley which is being redeveloped as a business centre.

Powerhouse Digital Photography, travel agency Uncover the World, Yorkshire Physiotherapy Network and Richard Moran Photography have together taken a combined total of more than 11,000 sq ft of office space.

John Gaunt, co-director of Edwin Woodhouse, owner of Sunny Bank Mills, said: “The pedigree of business reflects the quality of the refurbishments being undertaken and that even in the teeth of recession, Sunny Bank Mills and Farsley can succeed in its mission of being a creative space for business.”

There remains a range of small offices, from 300 sq ft upwards, available to let.

The five mills on the site, where textile production ceased in 2008, are currently being refurbished by the Gaunt family, whose ancestors opened the mill in 1829.

The company is in the process of refurbishing the exterior of the 1912 mill on the site. This has three floors, each of 8,700 sq ft, available to rent.

And there are other plans too, which Gaunt said could include having a 130-cover restaurant on the site, “with a terrace fronting Town Street, the main street in Farsley”.

For 12 years the mill was used as a location for ITV’s Emmerdale.

Neil Adams, managing director of Powerhouse Photography, said: “We believe the environment is perfect for new and expanding businesses, especially those in creative media and professional sectors. The location is brilliant, half-way between Leeds and Bradford, with all of Farsley’s community facilities on the doorstep.”

Mike Haigh, of Leeds-based property consultants Dove Haigh Phillips, believes this is one of the most significant mill regeneration projects currently being undertaken in Yorkshire.

“Steeped in history and with massive potential, Sunny Bank Mills is becoming one of the prime business locations in the West Leeds area,” he said. “The four lettings underline this. The mix of historic buildings with first-class modern business facilities is a winning combination, while the location, in between Leeds and Bradford, close to Yorkshire’s motorway network, one mile from the nearest station and just five miles from Leeds-Bradford Airport, is perfect.”

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>> Internet firm moves in at St Paul’s Street Solicitors Kelly & Co has let 2,450 sq ft of office space at 49 St Paul’s Street in Leeds to Trend Micro.

The internet content security provider has taken a three-year lease on the space in a deal negotiated by Jones Lang LaSalle.

Trend Micro needed more space after its acquisition earlier this year of Humyo.

Patrick Kelly from Kelly & Co Solicitors, said: “We have a further 1,000 to 6,500 sq ft ready for immediate occupation. We’ve received strong interest in the remaining floors which bodes well for further leasing activity in the New Year.”

Jones Lang LaSalle is joint leasing agent with BNP Paribas Real Estate.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

advisory, rental advice, town planning and landlord and tenant.

The appointment is for an initial two year period, with the option to extend for a further two years.

Javid Patel, DTZ senior consultant in corporate real estate consulting (pictured), who will be NHS CPC’s account manager, said: “There are challenges facing the NHS Trusts in view of the Government’s White Paper on NHS reform and the Comprehensive Spending Review.

“DTZ’s key experience in this sector will enable us to work closely with NHS CPC’s member Trusts to help them to realise their health priorities, and to help them to continue to deliver efficiencies in their estate.”

>> New intake for JLL New graduate Laura Thacker has joined Jones Lang LaSalle’s Leeds office.

Laura graduated with a BA in modern languages from Oxford University in 2004 followed by an MSc in property appraisal and management from Sheffield Hallam University in 2010.

She will undertake three placements during her training period with the firm and is currently working in the property and asset management team.

Jeff Pearey, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Leeds office, said: “Laura will form an integral part to our growth and future expansion. It is important that we have young talent coming into the business so that we have a great platform for future success as the markets continue to recover.”

>> Businesses asked to focus on science

>> DTZ wins NHS bid DTZ has been selected by NHS CPC, a procurement arm of the NHS, to act as single supplier of property, rental and lease advisory services to member Trusts in Yorkshire and Humberside and other regions, following a competitive tender.

Under the terms of an established framework, DTZ will be providing a range of services including strategic estate advice, estate management, project and building consultancy, sustainability, agency, lease

DTZ is to start quizzing technology businesses in the York area about the state of the property market in York.

The agency has been commissioned by Science City York, the technology focused investment promotion company, to develop a specialist property strategy and will be running the survey as a result.

DTZ will be working with Science City York on the Yorkshire Forward-funded project to assess opportunities for capitalising on the future growth potential of York’s knowledge base and identifying the property needs associated with it.

Science City York believes the strategy has the potential to strengthen the York property market and identify new development opportunities that will build on the success of York Science Park.

Andy Gurnell, delivery services manager at Science City York said: “The aim is to develop a robust and sustainable strategy that will help Science City York to continue to grow and attract the right businesses and strengthen York’s position as a leading innovation asset in the Leeds city region.”

Donald Webb, the DTZ director who is leading on the project, said he wanted to hear suggestions on the subject from local businesses.

“We want to hear what businesses have got to say about growth, barriers to growth and their property needs,” he said. “Are there gaps in property provision in York that need to be addressed? We want to speak to as many businesses as possible to get a clear picture of the situation. DTZ will be conducting a telephone survey of businesses over the next few weeks, followed by a workshop discussion in early 2011.”

DTZ already has experience of advising on other science-based initiatives across the country, including Lancaster Science Park, Edinburgh BioQuarter, Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, Roslin Biocentre and Loughborough Science Park.

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BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

in association with

The Issue: In light of recent Government announcements and the demise of regional development agencies, what are the big priorities for the Yorkshire business community to ensure we sustain the momentum of business support provision within our region?

All about money Funding is a fundamental support for any business, so it is likely that any debate about the future of business support will kick off with a critique of the most traditional source of funding – banks.

The first ever BQ Live event held in Yorkshire was no exception.

The event, held at the Malmaison in Leeds in November, lasted for well over two hours and featured some 11 top business professionals in the region. Out of all of them, Andrew Burton, fromViking Fund Managers, is particularly worked up about banks. He is having a running argument with the British Banker’s Association over its claims that four out of five applications for business loans are currently being approved by its members.

“What is a business?” he said. “What is a loan? What is an application? What does approval mean? None of my companies are getting any success. The banks say it is too risky to invest in them, but they backed Lehman Brothers.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

Chris Ball, managing director of Maria Mallaband Care Homes, is disheartened by the loss of autonomy within the region’s banks.

“I am annoyed by Yorkshire-based banks that have to cry off to people who aren’t in Yorkshire to get credit,” he said. “That isn’t helpful for Yorkshire.”

However in the banks’ defence, Joanne Lake from Financial Leeds believes they are caught between a rock and a hard place thanks to a Government that is determined to tell the public one thing and the banks something else. “It is a presentational issue,” said Lake, who is also a director at Evolution Securities.

“The Government is mandating banks to do less risky lending, and banks are doing that.

But then they are telling the public that they are telling the banks to lend more.”

As you might expect, Gary Lumby from Yorkshire Bank – and the only actual banker present – agreed. He said the banks have been criticised in the past for being too risky, so people can’t have it both ways now.

“Regulation has gone up sevenfold” he said, “and that has cost us money. The simple fact of the matter is that money got too cheap.”

That final claim chimes with Gillian Marshall from Business & Enterprise North East.

“In recent years most businesses could have walked in to a bank and achieved what they wanted with very little detail about what they were doing,” she said. “Now we need to make them fully aware of their responsibility to pay back what they have borrowed.”

Lumby admits that banks might need to become more risk-aware, but went on to say that in the post-credit crunch world the sort of companies Burton looks after might need to

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The participants Paul Ayre, managing partner, Gordons LLP Chris Ball, managing director, Maria Mallaband Care Home Group Ken Brook-Chrispin, managing director, Seabrook Crisps Mark Burke, head of government and infrastructure, Grant Thornton Andrew Burton, managing director, Viking Fund Managers, angel fund Matt Deering, investment director, Endless LLP, turnaround fund Joanne Lake, chairman, Financial Leeds, promotional body Gary Lumby, director of small business banking, Yorkshire & Clydesdale Bank Gillian Marshall, relationship manager, Business & Enterprise North East, business support organisation Joe Mclean, partner Grant Thornton Graeme Young, head of new business, Business & Enterprise North East, business support organisation In the chair: Caroline Theobald, Bridge Club Venue: Malmaison, Leeds BQ is highly regarded as a leading independent commentator on business issues, many of which have a bearing on the current and future success of the region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

look at a broader source of funding to succeed.

“We need to see more money in enterprise funds for those kinds of businesses,” he said, “because banks are never going to bridge that gap. These companies are knowledge-based and unprofitable, and we are never going to invest in those companies because the returns you get are not big enough to overcome the losses you might face.”

Time to rethink Some thought that changes in the funding regime Lumby had referred to required a new approach from businesses too.

Joe Mclean from Grant Thornton said.

“Businesses like Endless will become more important as funders. Gary’s Yorkshire Bank will not change because legally they can’t.”

Mclean even thinks some companies may

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DEBATE

The BQ Live Business Debate proved a remarkably successful opportunity for Yorkshire businesses to air their thoughts and concerns need to “go back in time” and form co-operatives to get funding, just as they did in the 19th century.

One more radical approach to funding was spelled out by Ken Brook-Chrispin of Seabrook Crisps. His company, which grew by 102% in 2008-9 and 72% in 2009-10, has approached banks “three to four times” in the last year to talk about funding, but got nowhere, he said.

“So we have gone to our suppliers instead, and said, ‘If you want to grow with us, you finance us’. With all our capital equipment suppliers we have said, ‘You usually ask for 60% up front, 30% on delivery, and 10% when your machines are operating – we now plan to pay you 10% with your order, 20% when it has been delivered to us in a fully-operational condition and is making us money, and we will pay you the rest over the year. You can take it or leave it.’”

He said such a ruthless approach has worked.

“When you are growing at 102%, cashflow is

When you are growing at 102%, cashflow is king. We had £3m in the bank, but it was eaten up in two months, and you are down to £100,000

king. We had £3m in the bank, but it was eaten up in two months with two promotions, and all of a sudden you are down to £100,000. My father-in-law always paid everyone within seven days. It was his raison d’etre in business. But before this, supermarkets were paying us within 75 days.

We have now redressed that to 62, but they are still pushing us out to 90 days, and they are 73% of our business.”

With debt funding becoming more scarce,

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there are differing opinions on whether equity is becoming a more popular option. Matt Deering thinks many companies are still not prepared to consider such an option.

Ball said that was hardly surprising given the current economic climate.

“You stick to what you know,” he said. “The last thing you want is a partner looking over your shoulder. Times like this harm the confidence of entrepreneurs, so you tend to become introverted.” >>

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DEBATE

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The replacement system for regional development agencies is still a confusing area for many Yorkshire business people

Bradford is envious of Leeds, which is envious of Manchester. It must cost the region a lot in not having a clear voice.

The North is very much an afterthought

Deering said that introversion was the problem.

“I have seen so many situations where six months earlier we could have helped but now it is too late,” he said.

Burton thinks businesses would have a more positive attitude to the issue of equity if they went about offering it in a more sophisticated way.

He said: “Businesses have two things to sell –

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products and shares. The trouble is they only think of selling shares when they are absolutely desperate for money and can’t get it from anywhere else – not when they are profitable, which is when they should be offering shares. I think the newer generation of businesses is much more savvy about equity.”

Mclean thinks several businesses are finding it harder to come out of recession in part

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because so many inherently unviable businesses are still being propped up by HMRC and the banks. He said that was a harsh judgement, but speaking from experience of sorting out the collapse of textile producer James Seddon in the 1990s, it was true.

“James Seddon was allowed to fail,” he said.

“Today it would be the subject of an HMRC review despite being insolvent and not having a future, mainly because its bank would not want to take a hit. But by allowing it to continue that business then does damage to others. It’s a bit like UK PLC having a garden with too many weeds in it.”

Partnership? What partnership?

Of course, banks, suppliers and the tax office aren’t the only people offering business support. The new Government, having announced the abolition of the regional development agencies, is promoting the idea of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), a

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private/public partnership designed to boost economic growth. But many in our forum appeared to be still unsure about what a local enterprise partnership is.

Gary Lumby, who as president of the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce has been actively involved in putting together the bid for a Leeds LEP, urged more people to come forward and get involved.

“LEPs bring the best of both worlds,” he said.

“It is very difficult for individual businesses to have a big enough voice by themselves.”

He said there was some urgency in getting the LEPs for Yorkshire going because the first bids for the Regional Growth Fund – which the Government is introducing in place of funding the RDAs – has to be in by January 2011.

“It’s a relatively small amount of money but its worth bidding for,” he said.

But other members of the forum, including Paul Ayre of Gordons, and Brook-Chrispin, said they were still uncertain about just how effective the LEPs would be.

“Three of my directors have been invited to be on the board of our LEP,” said Brook-Chrispin.

“But what is their qualification for being on it?

I won’t get involved if I think a LEP is just going to be a talking shop.”

Ayre said he found the current dialogue about the LEPs very confusing. “Who is on the LEP?” he said. “The other trouble is that Bradford is envious of Leeds, which is envious of Manchester. It must cost the region a lot in not having a clear voice. The North is very much an afterthought in this country.”

In the LEPs’ defence, Mark Burke of Grant Thornton admits that squabbling between cities has not helped northern economic growth. He said this could be seen with Sheffield trying to block Leeds’ new arena, even though it would be beneficial to both cities’ economies. But he said people’s confusion over LEPs is part of a gradual process of changing authority, and this will take time to implement.

“Hitherto the public sector has been behind the drive to new initiatives and they have been custodians for economic regeneration,” he said. “That is going to change, but the private sector doesn’t have such change in their focus at the moment.”

DEBATE

Along with general discussion, the debate also allowed delegates to canvass opinion Lake agreed, but said it is a two-way process.

“The LEPs need to engage with the private sector more,” she said.

Burton also thinks the culture difference between the two sectors it too great.

“It’s not in nature of business to be collaborative,” he said, “whereas competition is frowned on in the public sector.”

The old debate Such discussion led on to a wider debate about just how efficient the public sector is and has been in its dealings with business.

Graeme Young from Business & Enterprise North East says this is a particular issue for his organisation, which is witnessing the demise of Business Link and much business support moving to be delivered over the web.

“We are still deciding how we can charge businesses for support,” he said. “What represents added value for them?

Burke urged the forum not to hold onto any preconceived ideas in the months ahead.

“People don’t fully understand the public sector and the responsibilities we give them,” he said, “and therefore don’t appreciate that there is a cost for some of those responsibilities. We expect the public sector to do things on our behalf and make sure due process is followed.”

However Brook-Chrispin said his views had been jaded by a time spent being head of property at Burnley Council. Within a year of arriving he managed to cut staff numbers by three-quarters and still do twice as much

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work, and had cut the £4.5m budget by £3m by outsourcing work.

“At the end of the year, I went to the chief executive to say I must be in line for a salary increase because of what I had done. He said I must take a decrease because a principal officer has to employ so many people. In other words, the more people you employ, the more you get paid.”

Burke insists such issues are changing.

“The local authorities have spent an awful lot of resource bringing down costs following the Gershon report,” he said. “The NHS has reduced management costs by 3% since then.”

Athough Brooke-Chrispin thinks such a cut is not enough, Burke says putting pressure on cutting immediately will be harmful in the long term.

“The easiest thing in the world is to cut costs,” he said. “But the more pressure we put on local authorities to do this the more they will lose the opportunity they have now to see how they really could rationalise best for the future.”

Opinions also differ about whether funds given out in the past have been effectively targeted. Brook-Chrispin is totally against the idea of money going on job protections, pointing out how much money had been wasted in the past on Leyland and DAF Trucks. He thinks companies threatening to move abroad should just be allowed to do so, but his claim that they were only doing so because the UK has a minimum wage was >>

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DEBATE

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BQ LIVE DEBATE, 18 NOVEMBER 2010 A SUMMARY

The discussion moved around funding, partnerships, and public-private sector issues rejected by Joe Mclean who pointed out that people who earn the minimum wage then spend more in the UK economy.

From the business support side, Gillian Marshall from Business Enterprise North East thinks some companies seeking grant funding still have too easy a life, with no-one asking them why they didn’t invest money they made in the good times back into the business.

“It surprises me that we can have a £5m turnover business coming to business support network,” she said. “Where was that reinvestment? What happened to it?”

New ideas When forum chair Caroline Theobald brought the forum to a close by asking people to make one suggestion on how support could be improved, there was much discussion about new inventions. Brook-Chrispin feels the Government should be prepared to help pay for patent searches to help “boffins” get their ideas off the ground.

But Burton said people needed to be realistic about how much it cost to get an idea to market, especially as the cost was not something the Government would be able to afford on its own.

“You can put £100,000 into a fantastic idea,” he said, “but you need £1m to get it to launch stage, and £5m to get it to market.

People don’t realise that hundreds of millions of dollars went into Google before it was launched.”

He added that few investors in this country

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viewed intellectual property (IP) as a serious investment, usually because they were so much more attracted by the easy money to be made in commercial property. This situation could be reversed, he suggested, if the UK had a property tax like many other European countries, as this would encourage companies to keep their money in business.

“IP as an asset class is still dust on the carpet,” he said. “But we should be focusing on that, not property. Property is a zero sum game.”

He said the one good thing about the Government’s spending cuts was that Research Council money had been ringfenced.

Ball, who was a chemist in a former career, never found it hard to get research funding.

He doesn’t think more money being spent on research necessarily leads to better developments and economic growth.

“IP by itself does not create jobs,” he said.

Joe Mclean, in concluding, is also concerned that too many business people generally have become too relaxed about what is needed to make money.

He said: “Classic 18th century entrepreneurs used their grey matter and put profits back.

“Now in the West you have this mentality that says the world owes you a living or the bank owes you money. Most businesses say, ‘Mr Banker, give us the million pounds. We haven’t made a profit, but I have school fees to pay’.

“We need discipline and a return to the work ethic. You can’t just say: ‘I just want to be in business.’ That is the X Factor equivalent.” ■

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“In the light of recent Government announcements and the demise of regional development agencies, what are the big priorities for the Yorkshire business community to ensure we sustain the momentum of business support provision within our region?”

The Yorkshire business community is facing up to a significant challenge. If the region is to be successful it will need to find new ways of driving business opportunities, forming new partnerships and demonstrating strong business management. A lot can be done by highly-driven individuals but growth can only be achieved with the support of funders and Government. The serious issues of sovereign debt and how this has affected liquidity in the UK banking sector cannot be understated. Given the constraint on funds it could be better for UK banks to only be lending to viable business that could generate significant economic value. If this led to some areas of the business community not being able to access bank funding then this may be necessary to achieve growth across the whole economy. Business should be aware and consider involvement in the newlyestablished Local Enterprise Agencies. The exact way the LEP’s in the Yorkshire region will work is still to be seen, but they have the opportunity to be the facilitators of inward investment into the region and the conduit of private sector growth. The cuts in public funding makes it essential for businesses to engage in self-help rather than remaining reliant on the state or local authorities. Yorkshire, UK Plc, should return to its historical roots of being innovative and creative.

Mark Burke Head of Government & Infrastructure in Yorkshire – Grant Thornton mark.t.burke@uk.gt.com tel: 0113 245 5514 / 09797 414 4187

Made

Advice that’s made to measure.

Because one size doesn’t fit all.

At Grant Thornton, we’ve always gone about our business in a very different way. Delivering a bespoke service to all our clients is our primary concern and we won’t offer you or your clients an ‘off the shelf’ financial and tax solution. Far from it. Our advisers take the time to understand a client’s individual circumstances and aspirations. We believe it’s important to provide flexibility to meet our clients’ needs, to tailor our solutions accordingly and to dedicate the right people to the job in hand.

For further information on our services or to arrange an initial consultation, please contact: Jonathan Riley Office Managing Partner T 0113 200 1542 @uk.gt.com E johnathan.riley jonathan.c.riley@gtuk.com

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Made to Measure_211x266_BN090610.indd 1

09/06/2010 16:07:07

SUCCESS STORY

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four-stars get the high-five welcome The hotel sector is working well for those operators who can gauge what the customer wants and knows how to provide it, particularly if it involves luxury. Peter Baber reports on the top end of the market Mention the phrase “economic slowdown” and the hotel industry usually goes into hibernation.

So it is a pleasant surprise, as we come to the end of one year of slowdown and enter a new year that is only stuttering to recovery, that at the top end of the Yorkshire market, hoteliers seem remarkably active.

Over the past few months we have seen the opening of one major hotel in York, and the reopening of another in Leeds, while next year we might finally get to see the completion of two projects further afield whose gestation has taken many years.

Such activity may be because the situation is not as dire as you might think. Research across the whole sector by accountancy firm Deloitte suggests that in the first nine months of 2010 revenue per room (RevPAR), a key measure of success, held steady throughout the region, and in some cases even improved.

“It’s a pleasing result as average room rates are now reporting growth after seven consecutive quarters of decline,” says Martin Jenkins, hospitality partner in Deloitte’s Leeds office.

While there have been some notable business collapses – the Marmadukes and Guy Fawkes hotels in York, and Quebecs in Leeds – both businesses have been snapped up again relatively quickly. Only the Tomahawk group, a chain of three hotels in Bradford, Sheffield and Leeds that went under in September, was still being operated by its administrator as we went to press.

A couple of months before that hotel went

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There is very little difference in terms of service between a four-star and a fivestar. For a five-star to be effective you really need to have a lot of business under, however, its general manager Stuart Ward moved over to take charge of the reopening of a Leeds hotel that was probably the sector’s most spectacular collapse of recent years; the Ellington Hotel in York Place, now christened the New Ellington.

The hotel, named in honour of Duke Ellington’s appearance at a Leeds jazz festival in 1958, opened in 2008 promising five-star service and a restaurant with a menu that had been supervised by none other than Albert Roux. But within a couple of months it had closed down. So rapid was the close, in fact,

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that the staff departed, leaving everything behind them. For many weeks the furnishing and fixtures were still clearly intact and visible through the discreet front windows.

The hotel is now being operated by Bespoke Hotels. It’s a relatively new venture for the operator, most of whose existing operation consists of more country house-style hotels.

But Ward, who has 20 years’ experience in the Leeds hotel market behind him, says he is much more confident about the new operators. As the furniture was already in situ, he says, they have only gone for a “soft

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makeover” on things like valances and cushions. “But we have changed the uniforms to ones with pink and blue strips,” he says. He has put a flag outside the entrance too.

Previously the façade blended in so completely with the surrounding office buildings that it was hard to tell it was actually a hotel at all.

But he says the main achievement has been a recognition that perhaps the old Ellington was aiming too high.

“The previous owner just didn’t get the price points right,” he says. “They were out of reach of people in Leeds. We have entry level prices at £89, and we had 72% occupancy last weekend. These rooms had been coming in at £200 previously.”

The same is true of the restaurant, he says.

They may no longer have Albert Roux, but the new chef is James Cooper, a man with a long experience of working in Yorkshire hotels.

“He’s a lot more low-key,” says Ward, implying that maybe that is what people want.

The hotel has also repositioned itself as four-star, rather than five-star – a top-notch four-star, however. Ward says they are aiming to be recognised by the AA as having four red stars, which means you are among the top 200 four-star hotels in the country.

“You have to wonder if Leeds really has a need for a five-star hotel at all,” he says.

“There is really very little difference in terms of service between four-star and five-star.

“Market restrictions mean that for a five-star to be effective you really need to have a lot of business. Many public sector agencies, for example, aren’t allowed to use five star. And people travelling up from London expect prices to be cheaper up here.”

Ward points out that Oulton Hall on the outskirts of Leeds, which for many years was Yorkshire’s only five-star establishment, has dropped a star. He also claims that the Cedar Court Grand, which opened in York earlier in 2010, has already secretly dropped its ambitions to become York’s first five-star hotel, and is aiming for four-star status instead.

That’s a claim hotly disputed by the hotel itself.

A spokesman said that it has been working very closely with the AA to make sure that it does indeed come in at five-star.

“We are definitely a five-star product in terms of spec,” the spokesman said, “although the

SUCCESS STORY

Discretion: Mark Oglesby runs – and lives in – the exclusive Goldsborough Hall real challenge will be on levels of service.”

That will be up to the AA’s mystery customers to decide. The spokesman couldn’t say exactly when it would be known what grade the hotel has got, although “spring 2011” seemed a likely date.

The hotel has, however, lost its original general manager. Andrew Coney was brought in to launch the hotel, as we featured previously in

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this magazine. But he didn’t in the end want to relocate his family for the nitty-gritty business of establishing the hotel in the local community.

“You really need someone locally based to do that,” the spokesman said.

So in the meantime the Cedar Court group’s operations director John Horwath has been general manager, although Maria Florou, >>

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SUCCESS STORY

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Confident: Stuart Ward has overseen the reopening of the New Ellington Hotel, Leeds currently general manager of the Cedar Court in Huddersfield, will be moving over to York early in 2011.

As luxury destination hotels that could potentially have a nationwide clientele, however, both hotels could soon face competition from two new establishments that are opening up further east.

For Paul Ellis, chief executive of property

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developer the Skelwith Group, is confident that he can start opening Raithwaite Hall next summer, the first of two country retreats his company has been developing.

“We do have a pre-booking website,” he says, “but we are not taking bookings at Raithwaite until September, just to be on the safe side.”

His other venture, the Flaxby, a resort just off the A1(M) between Harrogate and York, is still

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not due to be completed until 2012. He admits the planning of this 283-acre site has taken some time, but he is not surprised.

“We have had a long discussion over the Section 106 agreement,” he says. “It has taken us 18 months to get the planning application through committee, and the agreement is still not signed off in principle.

But there again, it is currently the largest proposed development in Harrogate district.”

The Skelwith Group in the past has been better known for building mixed use and residential developments. Ellis says he saw hotels as a new angle.

“I didn’t just want to build something and lead somebody else to take the profit,” he says.

So the company has been developing the sites, spending nearly a total of £60m on the two of them, and will own them. It won’t operate the hotels, but that hasn’t stopped Ellis aiming high. When Raithwaite opens, it will be the first operation in Britain run by US-based international hotel operater West Paces. Its current operations include the uber-luxurious Ayana Resort in Bali and, through a subsidiary, the Setai Fifth Avenue, a hotel that is currently causing a stir in New York.

“In these times you have got to think outside the box,” says Ellis. “People like West Paces would normally have looked at London. But Yorkshire deserves to have a fantastic hotel of its own.”

Set in 88 acres in Sandsend near Whitby, Raithwaite Hall originally belonged to a shipping magnate who lost a fortune in the Second World War and shocked society by giving it away to his nanny. Ellis bought it from Gary Douglas, one of the founders of the company behind GHD hair straighteners. The 44-bedroom hotel will include a fine dining restaurant. As the site includes a beach, he is also hoping to install beach huts that could be let out.

Flaxby, meanwhile, he sees as an “upmarket conference destination”.

There are four different operators who are still budding to run the resort, which will include 303 rooms, a range of restaurants, bars, and a spa. But it has also caught public attention so far because of the way the development has been partly funded. Private individuals have been invited to make small investments into

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the project in return for a share of the profits when the hotel is operating.

Such an approach is similar to a model that Guesthouse Invest, a company building hotels in London, had adopted seemingly successfully, until it went into administration at the start of the recession, losing investors virtually all their money. But Ellis says he has learned from that example. While investors in Flaxby will share in profits, they won’t get a guaranteed number of nights in a room per year.

“That’s where Guesthouse Invest went wrong,” he says. “People bought the rooms because they could get occupancy. In effect they were getting nights for free.”

Ellis claims that both hotels are in an area that doesn’t have any luxury hotels at the moment.

“People might want to go on a holiday there who are sick of caravans and B&Bs,” he says.

He may be being disingenuous. That part of Yorkshire may be devoid of such hotels, certainly, but just over the border in Teesside a hotel opened in December 2009 that, with 61 rooms, two bars and a 13-room spa, is clearly a match for Raithwaite at least – only it is set in 375 acres, not 88. Rockliffe Hall has already been awarded five stars by the AA as well.

However Ellis is not deterred by competition.

He says he thought about buying the Ellington when it was in administration, only he thought the site was too small. He is, however, looking at two potential projects elsewhere in the region, one in central Leeds, and one in central Harrogate.

There is, however, another owner of a country house in the region who, after five years of careful restoration, is marketing his property out for what he hopes will be a new kind of corporate and private offering.

Goldsborough Hall outside Knaresborough had been left empty for five years when Mark Oglesby acquired it. Having made a fortune by the sale of his dotcom business earlier last decade, he has now spent at least £2m on restoring its main rooms and renovating six of its 40 bedrooms with such modernday luxuries as whirlpool baths and plasma screens.

Oglesby, who also happens to live in the property, has been very discreet about marketing the venue, which thanks to an

SUCCESS STORY

We can do 200 for a function but we can also do dinner for two. If the chef is not in we put them in one of our Bentleys and send them out to a restaurant estate sell off in the 1970s is now carefully hidden behind some tasteful retirement homes. You can’t just turn up and expect to be able to book a room, for example.

But that is deliberate, he says, and that discretion has led to some big name celebrities coming to stay.

“I can only talk about former prime ministers,” he says. “But there aren’t many of those still living. Our clients come because it is private.

“We can do up to 200 for a function, but we can also do dinner for two. If they are staying here and doing other things, we have the chef here. But if the chef is not in, we put them in one of our Bentleys and send them out to a restaurant.”

It’s not surprising that he regards his venue as more like a luxury bed and breakfast than a boutique hotel.

“There is no real way to describe it in England,” he says. “In France they have chateaux you can stay in – they are far more geared up to that. Unfortunately the concept of B&B in England is rather downmarket. So in hotels there are two extremes, tiny boutique venues and big hotels. We are in between.

“If you run a hotel at five-star level you have to have 24-hour concierge and all those things that we don’t have and don’t need to have.

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But we are also different from a boutique because we are 400-year-old stately home.”

Goldsborough does have an amazing history.

Built in 1601 by a Sir Richard Hutton, the house was occupied by Oliver Cromwell’s troops while they destroyed Knaresborough Castle. In the 18th century the Byerley Turk, the oldest of three horses that were the original stud for all of today’s racing thoroughbreds, was buried there.

But Oglesby hopes he can use the Royal Wedding in 2011 as a means to highlight the venue’s particularly illustrious 20th century history. In 1922 it became the home of Princess Mary, George V’s daughter and the original “people’s princess” thanks to her tireless work visiting wounded soldiers in the First World War. That year she married the son of the Earl of Harewood, making her the first royal to marry someone who wasn’t royal themselves, and the couple came to live in Goldsborough before moving to Harewood House when the then earl died.

So far, the omens are good. The 12 acres that remain of the estate include a garden that was laid out by Princess Mary in 1928. Oglesby says when he recently opened these out to the public for one day, interest was so great the police had to shut the road for a few hours. n

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ENTREPRENEUR

DIAMOND GEEZER A sector as solidly traditional as jewellery retailing doesn’t often experience reinvention, but as Peter Baber discovers, there are ways to do exactly that and make a real success out of it People with a particular keen eye for the finer things of life – upmarket jewellery stores, say – might have noticed recently that a name that has become well known in such a sector in the past few decades suddenly seems to be diverging.

We are talking about Phillip Stoner Jewellery, a retail chain with branches right across West and North Yorkshire.

Since 2008, some of these branches have started to appear with the pared-down Stoners name instead, while the products they have on offer have changed quite a bit.

Is this a familiar sign of a family business falling apart?

After all, the chain was founded by Stoner in 1981. A former lecturer in jewellery design at the Bradford College of Art, he decided to practice what he preached and set up his own jewellery store. He was joined by his two sons, first John and seven years later, Chris.

The Stoners store in Shipley is Chris Stoner’s brainchild. In the early part of 2011 another Stoners shop will be opening in Harrogate – just next to the new Harrogate branch of Van Mildert, an equally-upmarket clothing store.

Yes, it is a different company. But Chris is adamant that the parting has been amicable, and that there has not been a rift.

“My dad is thrilled to bits with what both John and I have done,” he says. “He actually said to me yesterday, ‘I would tell you if I thought different.’”

As for Phillip Stoner Jewellery itself, Chris’s

brother John has now taken over the running of the company, as Phillip has semi-retired. It too is opening a new store, this time in Manchester – its first outside the Yorkshire region. So what has happened? By way of explanation, Chris goes into the history of where they have come from.

Despite working for it as a teenager, he says he did not initially want to work in the family firm.

He says: “I wasn’t so sure it was for me. I wasn’t ready for work, so I started doing business law, then did marketing.”

Ah, but fresh out of college, as so often happens with those with a family lifeline when they are forced into the real world, the family business momentarily started looking more attractive.

“I went to work directly afterwards,” he says. “‘Give it six months’ my dad said. But I never went away.”

Once he had learned the ropes, however, he started having new ideas about how the business could be run. He admits he was a bit of a “cocky upstart”. “I wanted to conquer the world, and do all these things that young people do,” he says.

But slowly he began to persuade both John and his father of the merits of a new venture he had in mind. By this time the company had three branches – in Halifax, Pudsey and Shipley. They were all doing very respectably, but Chris felt they could do more.

“When I joined we were doing lots of giftware and porcelain birds,” he says. “People’s tastes have changed over a fairly short period of time. The younger generation is not interested in having glass animals on shelves. I wanted to work at the higher end of the market.”

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There was resource in the business that needed bringing out too, he felt.

“My dad had a workshop in Bradford that employed 20 goldsmiths at one point,” he says. “But we weren’t shouting about it.”

His solution was not just to go up several notches in terms of product on display, but to open in a more prominent location too – in The Light, which at the time (back around 2005) was Leeds’ newest and smartest shopping centre.

“The shop we created in Leeds was much more design-led,” he says. “We travelled around Europe doing research, and took lots of inspiration from places like Paris and Munich. It’s a very European style shop, I think, quite daring, and incredibly focused and niche.

Most jewellers then were still working on a conventional pad-based display scheme. We totally abandoned that, with on occasion just half a dozen pieces of jewellery in the entire window.

The new store was also much more focused on selling diamonds above all. Contrary to what you might, think, this was not necessarily limiting the market to weddings and engagements.

“People don’t just buy diamonds once or twice in their lifetime,” he says. “There are always birthdays and anniversaries.

“I would say we went from where we were trading up three or four notches. We were not far away in terms of market position from Berrys. Anybody who is anybody shops there – but we weren’t far away. The other three shops also raised their game a bit, although you couldn’t transport a store like Leeds back into Halifax.”

Once the new formula had proved itself and the new store had been up and running for a couple of years, however, Chris says he >>

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ENTREPRENEUR

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started getting new ideas again. He realised he still had some things he wanted to do, and first and foremost among these was the desire to prove that he could set up something on his own.

“I had done some good things, and had pushed the business really far forward,” he says, “but I wanted to run my own business.”

So he left and moved away – but not too far away sector-wise. He started a jewellery design business with a range of end-customers.

“I really loved it,” he says.

But by this time, having successfully established the store in the Light, John and Phillip were looking to go up a notch again and open a store in the Victoria Quarter. To do that, they realised it would make sense to rationalise and close down one of the more regional stores as well. Chris became aware that the Shipley store was likely to be the casualty, and started discussing the idea of taking on the property there as his own store with his wife Sarah. The first fully-fledged Stoners store opened in Shipley in 2008, and right from the start it was meant to have a different feel to his old family business. There was even more emphasis on their manufacturing capabilities, with at times as much as 90% of stock their own designs.

He admits the move was something of a turnaround.

“I had been desperate to get out of retail, but I really missed it after six months,” he says. “I love the changing aspect of it. Every day I go in and it is different. Sometimes in manufacturing industry you don’t get that.

“We transformed the Shipley store within eight months. This involved making brave decisions – some of the brands had been there for a long time and we had customers coming back for them, but we still decided to cull them, not to upset anybody, but because we knew what the future was.

“Despite the downturn, we have had a phenomenal two years. People are still buying diamonds, and the average spend on a wedding is going up and up.”

Now the new store in Harrogate will be the same – only more so. All upmarket jewellers need a good watch brand to sell alongside the jewellery, but Chris is bringing only one watch brand into the new store – Rolex. That should

ENTREPRENEUR

leave more space for the shop’s own designs of diamond jewellery. In fact, although his shop does make jewellery with other gemstones, he admits diamonds are a passion.

“It’s difficult not to enjoy coming to work and going past the diamonds, sifting through them, examining them and marvelling at them,” he says.

It’s surprising that someone with such a passion wears no diamonds at all himself. Not even a tiepin. Chris laughs such thoughts off, but says the market for men’s jewellery is taking off astronomically at the moment.

“It’s still aimed at the wedding market,” he says, “but a lot of guys are after something very different. Ten years ago all they wanted to know is how wide it was going to be and what their finger size was. Now some are happy to spend around £1,000 on their ring alone, and we can make them for £5,000, £6,000. We have done some work for some of the England cricket guys, and that has been really top fashion-led.”

He says the choice to locate in Harrogate was obvious.

“We are very lucky to have a town like Harrogate so close by,” he says. “It’s a stunning town anyway, but the shopping is second-to-none. You always see empty shops in Leeds, even in the Victoria Quarter. Here you see hardly any.”

Harrogate was a clear leader over York, for example.

“York is very much a tourist town,” he says.

“It’s difficult to get hold of people who live in York, and the town is over-subscribed with jewellers already.”

Nor does he particularly want to go into Leeds, despite his experience there.

“Leeds is also well subscribed with jewellers,” he says. “It’s a tough proposition to go head-to-head when you are fairly young.”

He doesn’t in fact see an immediate prospect of expanding anywhere.

“I see the next two years as working incredibly hard to make this concept work,” he says.

But if there were one place he might be tempted, it would be Princes Street in Edinburgh, his wife Sarah’s home town.

She has become more involved in the business in the past 18 months, having initially had a career in financial services marketing. And

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among other things, she has been instrumental in improving the company’s blog. Chris is excited about the possibilities that social media brings.

“We can talk about things we get to see, and celebrities we deal with,” he says. “And if we have a big valuable diamond coming into the store – people are interested in stuff like that.”

I am surprised that a jeweller would want to risk advertising what might be stealable to all and sundry, but if you go into the blog you will also discover that a month or so ago Chris met Sir Bob Geldof privately, a meeting arranged by a mutual friend.

“He is really inspirational,” he says. “I didn’t realise but he likes his watches, he is a watch buff.”

But surely, I say, setting up on your own this way must have ruffled a few feathers?

After all, Harrogate is not so very far from Leeds, where brother John has two stores.

Chris says there are differences between the two companies.

“John has a good formula with what he is doing in Leeds,” he says. “He sells a whole range of products, with some branded jewellery. Our store is much more niche. Not just in terms of value but also how it looks.”

He also insists that the two companies work well together.

“Obviously people have heard of both companies, but we try to be very grown-up,” he says. “There are occasions where I know we are quoting for the same job John has, and on those occasions I have told him about it.”

Are relations really that smooth? Chris insists they are.

“I just want to see what the future might hold,” he says. “We have even had conversations in the past about how we might bring the two stores back together again – maybe in our seventies. But for now we are really happy doing our own things.”

I still remain unconvinced – until Chris takes us around to see the new store. A figure appears in the doorway and it turns out to be brother John himself. Together the two brothers spend the next 15 minutes going over in detail what Chris plans for the store.

Certainly for the moment, these are two business brothers who seem to be happy competing. n

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ENTREPRENEUR

WINTER 10

frog’s leg up for savvy schools Advances in technology are only important if they improve the lives of those who apply them – that’s just one lesson Peter Baber has learned Gareth Davies had written his first computer programme by the age of 13, a stock control programme for his dad’s business.

He had actually discovered computers at the age of 11 when he borrowed a friend’s Sinclair Spectrum, while for his 12th birthday his dad had bought him a BBC Micro. That was something all aspiring computer programmers wanted in the 1980s – and it’s no surprise that by the age of 16 he was writing computer games.

“I didn’t finish any of them,” he recalls now. “I guess it’s my personality. I’m a good starter, not a finisher. But when I was 12 and sat on that kitchen table, I realised that with this technology I can do anything, given the time.”

It’s an impressive record, but not particularly unusual. After all, the country is probably teeming with men who at a similar age to Davies wanted to be the new Clive Sinclair and have spent the intervening years – their twenties, thirties, and very possibly forties – poring over computer screens to the chagrin of their friends, wives, and children – assuming they have any.

Davies, by contrast, now aged 40, is married with kids and the managing director of Frog, a Halifax-based software company that is the market leader in providing learning platforms – or virtual learning environments – to Britain’s secondary schools.

This really is quite an achievement, not least because in 2007 the company failed to make it onto the list of preferred suppliers that BECTA, the government body which has been

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responsible for trying to introduce more technology into the process of learning. It is currently being wound up by the new Government.

Learning platforms were at the forefront of BECTA’s plans, as such software aims to create an environment where pupils can do research and interact with their teachers online, and leave homework to be corrected. At the same time teachers – and of course parents – can keep an eye on how those pupils are doing.

There shouldn’t be any chance to say you have forgotten to bring homework or lost your class report in a school with a properly functioning learning platform.

Other much larger companies, including Serco and Pearson, did make it on the BECTA shortlist and they should theoretically have had the easiest selling job around. BECTA was going to provide the schools with money to buy the platforms that the shortlisted companies were developing. But even so, many of these schools still opted for Frog, even if that meant taking money – sometimes up to £50,000 – out of their capital budgets.

Some 14% of all secondary schools – not just those who already have learning platforms – are now signed up to Frog.

As a result, the company, tucked away at the back of Dean Clough Mills, has been growing rapidly. It currently employs 90 people – double the number it employed just 18 months ago – and has turned over £5m in the past 12 months with an operating profit of £500,000 that excludes a further £500,000

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reinvested into research and development.

What’s more, it has just signed up for a joint venture with YTL, a software company quoted on the Malaysian stock exchange, as the start of a hoped-for expansion into the Far East.

YTL has also invested £2m in Frog, although Davies says it didn’t need the money.

“We’ve got £1.5m in the bank,” he says. And he and co-founder Tariq Isa still control 60% of the business.

So how has Davies the teenage programmer turned into Davies the successful entrepreneur? Not necessarily through continuing to design programmes. Davies says he now can’t think of anything worse to do, although that’s partly because running the company takes up so much of his life that he doesn’t have the time you need to really develop a programme.

Davies grew up within sight of Alton Towers in Staffordshire,“so my choices had I stayed there would have been working in a local biscuit factory or putting a big furry costume on.”

Instead he travelled to Leeds, working first in a software house and then as IT manager for Drummond, then one of the biggest worsted mills in the country with a turnover in worsted alone of £50m.

It was his experience of working at Drummond, he says, where he had an IT budget of £1m a year, that really brought home to him the message that the key to success in technology is not the technology itself.

“Great software is about people, not

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technology,” he says. “I learned an awful lot about people and culture change and how to make software work while I was at Drummond.

“I was often approached by fusty types who would say, ‘You’re trying to change 140 years of tradition here, young man’.

My immediate response to that was, ‘Good!’

I was trying to build software that was clever technically; technology that would make processes more efficient.

“I was correct about wanting to do that, but was a 10% improvement better if it made people’s lives a nightmare? Perhaps not.

“I learned that it is sometimes better to be more long-winded if as a result the technology is more intuitive or easier to understand. And if it is then software will get people excited because they understand culture change.”

It is this philosophy which is at the heart of Frog, he says. Whatever the company produces he wants to make sure it is something anyone can work on, not just an IT geek.

“It’s that same emotion of feeling that you can do anything that we put in our software today,” he says. “If you can get people to feel that same emotion, you get them to give a shit. That is the whole point of Frog.

“We have a load of Lego bricks that they can bring onto a page to help them build their own YouTube, say, or their own Facebook.

They build it themselves without being a programmer, and go home and say, ‘Look what I did today’. The whole thing is capturing that emotion and the ability to do anything.”

He can cite countless examples of how Frog is boosting education, many of which are included on the company website.

There’s the example of the maths challenge that one school initially devised to test its own pupils, but which, because Frog is set up to allow sharing of programmes, has now been expanded so that different schools can challenge each other.

Then there’s the science teacher in an Oldham school who was faced with the daunting prospect of teaching the bottom set.

“They didn’t give toss about science,” says Davies, “but the teacher noticed they all shared an interest in rap and hip hop. So, using Frog, the teacher downloaded >>

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ENTREPRENEUR Eminem’s photo from the internet, added some speech bubbles and delivered Eminem’s Guide to the Planets. The next week it was P Diddy’s Guide to Invertebrates. Eventually he found a couple of lads in the library doing their own independent learning.

“Kids are on the internet all the time using Facebook and all that cool stuff, and then they come to school and sit watching a teacher for an hour with chalk. It’s not surprising they’re bored.

“Sunbury School, one of our clients, developed something called the Box. Pupils who were disruptive were put in solitary, but were working on the same projects as everybody else through Frog. And they could catch up because they are not messing about.

Exclusions at the school went down to zero.”

He even says there have been cases where class sizes have been able to expand to 60 using Frog, because teachers act as mentors to pupils working on the system rather than wardens trying to hold a rabble together.

There have been claims that all such IT wizardry effectively devalues the teaching profession, but he says it’s the Government’s own guidelines which are responsible for doing that. When BECTA put together its shortlist it also put together a technical specification for how it thought learning platforms should run, and Davies clearly has little regard for that. He even suggests that part of Frog’s success has come from not having to follow it.

“The Government framework was actually there to deskill teachers,” he says. “We are trying to allow teachers to invade the world kids are in.”

Given such fighting talk, it is surprising to learn that Frog has never been in touch with any of the teaching unions, nor have the unions approached them. Davies says they do come across the odd Luddite teacher and as a result they have a special way of introducing the system at a new school.

“We tend to implement organically,” he says.

“We have half a dozen ‘Frog champions’; they start to do cool stuff, and then other teachers look over their shoulders, or they get pressure from the children. So 18 months in, the Luddites have no choice.”

Certainly the company’s own research shows

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Kids are on the internet all the time using Facebook and all that cool stuff and then they come to school and sit watching a teacher for an hour with chalk that 90% of the system’s users are active. How many software houses could boast of a similar achievement?

So why does he think that one little company that had no support from any government body has managed to outbid so many other bigger players? He says it’s because what Frog is providing isn’t actually a learning platform in the technical sense. It is something much, much more.

“The conventional learning platform doesn’t do a lot,” he says. “It has email, calendar, document storage, and the ability to play learning content. Frog, in comparison, is a development platform. It’s essentially a Lego kit to let you build whatever you want. We are providing means for teachers to innovate and share that innovation, rather than other platforms which say, ‘We think this is best.’”

Yes, but other bigger players in the market could quickly start copying what Frog has done. Davies says they have already tried.

“Some competitors are trying to copy our product or marketing,” he says, “but they are copying what it looks like, not what it does.”

He says the company is “at least two generations ahead of everyone else,” although a generation could last as little as six months.

“There could be somebody, but it would take a lot of money to compete” he says. “We have 17 developers, and nine designers – 26 people involved in developing systems. If you are going to catch up, you will need a lot more people than that.”

For the moment, therefore, his focus is most on what lies ahead, principally the deal with the Malaysians. He says he is aware of the issues involved in teaming up with a business based in the Far East where cultures can be different.

“I have been there enough times to recognise problems,” he says. “It can be very hierarchical

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and a blame culture where nothing happens unless the boss says so.”

Initially, between three and six people will out there, including the chief executive of what he claims will effectively become Frog Asia, the first of what he hopes will be an international expansion which could see the company have a clutch of overseas subsidiaries within five years.

The company is also launching its first product for primary schools, although universities are currently not in its sights, because, says Davies, that sector has effectively been wrapped up by one operator.

Success, however, hasn’t been without its ups and downs. When Davies and Isa first decided to set up a company together, he gave up a six-figure salary to do so.

He says: “I was still not 30 and doing very well, but I went home to wife and said I had quit my job. I went to Pakistan for five weeks, brought Tariq back with me, moved him into the house for 15 months, by which time I was in debt. We put together a business in textiles, linking designers in the West with manufacturing in East via the internet.

“You could design clothes in a browser, but it didn’t work because textile people had no money and venture capitalists had no interest in textiles.

“My mortgage was on the point of defaulting, so we pulled one little piece from the business which was building websites for SMEs. We spent 12 months running around SMEs, but they just wanted to give the job to one of their mates.

“Finally we showed it to a head teacher. He said it was bloody marvellous, and that’s how we got into education.”

It’s only a shame that Davies can’t now remember the name of that head teacher who got them going in the right direction. n

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BUSINESS LUNCH

WINTER 10

LADIES FIRST: THE NEW HYMN Business seminars and networking, with leisure and pleasure never far away, are what sets one women’s group apart. Peter Baber shares a table with a forward-thinker

Whatever you may think of the end of Yorkshire Forward, it is worth noting that the name will live on even after it has gone – at least half of it will. Because Forward Ladies, one of the regional development agency’s initiatives that may initially have seemed a bit peripheral will, according to its founder Etta Cohen, still be going strong long afterwards.

The group has certainly grown energetically in its first decade. From an informal meeting of just five women – including Cohen – ten years ago who thought it would be good to make their get-togethers more useful, it now has a database of 12,000 businesswomen, a group Cohen often refers to as “the ladies”. And now it has plans to expand nationwide.

It also does much more than network. Much more. Which is part of what Cohen has come to tell me over lunch at the Lazy Lounge, a

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wine bar and restaurant just opposite the Novotel in central Leeds which, on a freezing day in early December, seems the perfect place to come in from the cold for a cosy hour or two. The wine list is exhaustive, and while the lunch menu may be sophisticated versions of fairly standard fare – I settle for bangers and mash – it is very reasonably priced, with only one dish costing more than £10. And there are very ample portions too. Cohen looks amazed at the size of the fish on her plate when it arrives.

“It looks like one of those sharks they have captured off Sharm-El-Sheikh!” she laughs.

But then down to business. What else does Forward Ladies do apart from network? Well, there are training seminars for a start.

“We have done training seminars on importing, leadership, presentation, finance, budgeting, even how to dress for business,” says Cohen. “Anything the ladies want we can arrange.”

This has been expanded out into a mentoring network too. Closely modelled on the groups run by Vistage, a peer-to-peer mentoring group that is itself very strong in Yorkshire, the mentoring is done via closed groups of between eight and 12 women, each of whom has to commit themselves to one session every six weeks that lasts about three hours, and is chaired by someone appointed by Forward Ladies.

The organisation has run trade missions too.

“We’ve been to Paris and Hong Kong, mostly

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visiting manufacturing associations,” she says, “and we did one on European funding.

We took the ladies to Brussels to learn about the EU, and we also did one to Latvia, and one of our ladies now trades in Eastern Europe as a result.”

That trip to Latvia also sparked off a new type of business trip – essentially a trip for business women where business is not on the agenda, but getting to know each other is.

“We call them business breaks, and they are fantastic to get away on,” says Cohen. “We have been to Barcelona, to the North East, to Finland, and to Monte Carlo. The ladies say that in 48 hours they can really get to know someone.”

On what might be called a more serious note, the organisation also runs conferences centred around International Women’s Day in the first week of March. The 2010 event at the Met Hotel in Leeds attracted around 150 people, but Cohen is already hoping that the 2011 event, held at the Copthorne Hotel in Sheffield on March 7 will attract 200.

She says: “We are having Penny Mallory, the female equivalent of Jeremy Clarkson, and Lady Catherine Meyer, who went through the harrowing experience of having her children abducted and set up a support group for similarly affected parents as a result.

“She then married Sir Christopher Meyer just before he became British ambassador in Washington and so was in the US at the time of Monica Lewinsky and 9/11. But our keynote

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BUSINESS LUNCH

Getting to know you: Forward Ladies, led by Etta Cohen, has taken business breaks to the likes of Barcelona and Monte Carlo speaker is Arlene Phillips, formerly of Strictly Come Dancing. I hope she will talk about ageism and sexism.”

Next year there’s also a one-off event – an audience with Cherie Blair. The former prime minister’s wife is doing the event without a fee to promote her new foundation. There will be a £5 donation to the charity with each ticket.

Forward Ladies has also started running its own Women in Business awards. At the inaugural event last year, also held at the Met Hotel, Sarah Dunwell from Create, a social enterprise based at the Trinity Church in Leeds, walked off with the overall prize. But there were also nine category prizes. This year’s awards are also moving to the Copthorne Hotel in Sheffield.

It is clearly an impressive achievement. So much of one, in fact, that Cohen doesn’t refer to her organisation as a networking club but as a “business support organisation”.

She admits that there are indeed many networking groups out there, where the idea is to “get people in a room, pay your amount and do some business”.

“We are not like that,” she says. “Our way of working is about building long-term relationships. You get to know who you can trust in business, so even if you are not doing business with them, you would be happy to recommend them to someone who was.”

Of course, many of those other groups have not had the luxury of having Yorkshire Forward support. Cohen was a business development

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director at the RDA when she founded Forward Ladies. She was given time and resources to help it grow, and when it was hived off four years ago, she won the tender to run it as a stand-alone organisation.

So although Forward Ladies has not been based at Yorkshire Forward’s headquarters since then, it’s no surprise she feels it owes a lot to the agency from which it took half of its name.

“I hope Yorkshire Forward will leave lots of legacies,” she says, “and I like to think we will be a strong one. Of course, as we grow to be UK-wide, that connection will get less and less. But there has been a lot of talk about the private sector taking up the slack. We are now private sector, and that’s great.” >>

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BUSINESS LUNCH Well, yes. But strictly speaking Forward Ladies is not totally private sector yet. It is still relying on some subsidy from Yorkshire Forward.

It has been making valiant moves to become self-sufficient. After the tender was complete it introduced a membership fee of £50 year, although only a part of the 12,000-strong database pay this. Cohen thinks it is important that new people coming to the organisation should try out several events first before committing themselves, because the events she runs are so varied.

“And as long they carry on paying the non-member rate, that is fine,” she says.

Cohen and her team of five part-time staff have also been actively seeking sponsorship for events too, and have succeeded – all ten categories at its Women in Business awards, for example, found a sponsor. Big names like Ernst & Young, East Coast Rail and O2 have all agreed to sponsor events in the past.

But it is still not self-sufficient, and that is why it is now looking at national expansion as part of its business plan. Does she think Forward Ladies will in fact be fully selfsufficient by the time Yorkshire Forward ceases to be in March 2012?

“Well, that’s the plan, and we are well on our way,” she says.

Plans for national expansion revolved around licensees. Three have already been appointed for the Manchester area, the Liverpool/Chester area, the Isle of Man, with one more within Yorkshire to cover Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield, while Cohen is in discussions with a potential candidate for Sheffield/ Doncaster and another for Lincoln. Soon she hopes to start moving south into the Midlands.

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It’s all about looking forward, not necessarily about Yorkshire. It also conjures up the social side of what we do – that we are jokey and forward One wonders, however, how an institution which has historically has its roots in Yorkshire would go down in other areas. Although she has only been based in Yorkshire “since I was knee high”, she is of the region. A committed Leeds United fan, she watches most home games from the box her brother bought when he sold his business, and clearly has little regard for outsiders like Terry Venables coming to run the show.

But she says the idea has been well received elsewhere. “The Forward brand will translate

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really well,” she says. “It’s all about looking forward, not necessarily about Yorkshire. You clearly have to tell people how it started, because you don’t forget where you came from, but it also conjures up the social side of what we do – that we are jokey and forward.”

Just how forward does that have to mean, however? Given the current debate about women not making it to corporate boardrooms, does she advocate, as some do, the need for positive discrimination?

“I would like to see more women engaged at

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all levels,” she says, “but women should be there for their abilities. There are some women who don’t actually want that. There are some men who don’t want that either.”

She does feel, however, that more could be done to promote the idea of people having a non-linear career.

“Some of the ladies do have problems with banks who think their business must be a lifestyle business because they are a woman and so they don’t get the finance they need.

As a society we have to progress. One of our ladies was appointed to a board at the same time as she found out she was pregnant. They still appointed her. That’s right. That’s about saying you have the right experience.”

Forward Ladies does in fact include men. They are invited to what are called 50/50 events, and there are around 1,000 men on the database. There are even three men on Forward Ladies six-strong board.

“Our board is equal, and that’s why it’s a great board,” she says. “It’s not right to say our board will only be women.”

So why then, does she still feel it’s important to have women-only events?

“They allow women to mix in an environment where they feel comfortable and confident,” she says. “Many of the ladies say other events may still be 80% male and they appreciate they have to go to them, but sometimes they like to be with other women. We could eventually change those so they were 50/50 too. Wouldn’t that be great?”

This giving people slack is all part of what she clearly sees as the main philosophy behind Forward Ladies – the idea that is it nonjudgemental.

BUSINESS LUNCH

It is a philosophy that she first gleaned in a former career being a middle school teacher in inner city Leeds that lasted 22 years.

“That taught me a lot,” she says. “I met plenty of talented young people who sadly did not have the opportunity that others have. It may have been because their parents did not realise their child’s potential, or because some came from terrible home backgrounds. So you don’t judge people. That’s important.”

But she also feels this as a divorcee who had

to bring two children up on her own. She says she knows what it’s like being a single parent, and that’s why she admires some of the ladies she sees.

“The whole thing is about risk,” she says. “I have two children – and when I was bringing them up I was sometimes struggling. Would I then take on huge bank loan and risk not having food on the table just to set up a business? No I would not. But some do. That’s why I admire them, and don’t judge them.” n

Lazy Lounge Wedged between Whitehall Road and Wellington Street in Leeds, bang slap next to what was going to be Lumiere, Europe’s tallest residential building, Lazy Lounge is the result of two high-flying sales directors taking a two-year sabbatical to tour the wineries of Australia and New Zealand.

Kristian and Nicola Jordan, who worked respectively in the IT sector and for Nestle, came back enthused about how unstuffy and democratic the wine industry was down under. They decided they wanted to introduce something like that to more snooty Britain, to create a place where people could come in and enjoy wines they might not find on the high street, without being intimidated, and without feeling they necessarily have to order a big meal too.

So as soon as you walk in on the ground floor you have a bar with a large area, comfy seating and tempting bottles of the likes of Gevrey Chambertin on display (sadly already drunk). There’s a more formal dining area on a mezzanine upstairs.

General manager Richard Brown says the stalling of the Lumiere project and subsequent collapse of Kevin Linfoot’s property empire was a bit of a blow. The site is now just an empty space with hoardings. But Brown says new developments nearby are bringing in new punters in droves.

They may be enticed by the bar’s evening menu of light bites and tapas, once again designed around whatever wine you may choose to try out.

The bar stays open till 11pm from Monday to Thursday, and midnight Friday and Saturday, although food is only served until 9pm.

There are plans to roll out the concept to up to 15 other locations, starting elsewhere in Yorkshire, but these are only provisional at the moment.

Lazy Lounge, Westpoint, Leeds LS1 4JY, www.lazy-lounge.com

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BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

fruity language

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NORTON ON WINE

Thomas Norton from BOSE, Leeds, is concerned that a farming background isn’t the ideal preparation for a job describing wine Very few phone calls over a hectic winter period are guaranteed to brighten the mood more than one I received asking me to sample a couple of bottles on behalf of BQ magazine.

Never one to turn away a glass or two, it was with great relish that I agreed wholeheartedly to dust off the old English Language A-level in exchange for wine. With a solemn promise to give due diligence and not, in the words of a colleague, “get overambitious and forget everything by the morning”, I uncorked the first of the two offerings.

The 2009 Pinot Noir, hailing from Felton Road’s Cornish Point vineyard was left to breathe whilst I wondered whether a Yorkshireman from farming stock could get away with using the decidedly overwrought floral language required to describe wine. That this wine comes from one of the most southerly vineyards on Earth it provides a pleasant juxtaposition with my Northern roots.

Given that this may be my last opportunity it would be remiss of me to pass up the chance to describe the nose as containing deep cherry flavours with a warming hint of oriental spice.

The taste matched up to the wine’s deep ruby purple colouration, containing ripe plum combined with darker oak and a depth of chocolate.

I’m not sure what my grandfather, after spending a lifetime tending to his crops and livestock would make of those last few sentences, but I do know for certain that he would have enjoyed a glass or two of the Felton Road – and so should you.

According to those in the know, a good white burgundy should be left to age before drinking, so with this in mind I left it a couple

of nights before opening the second bottle.

Originating from closer to home is the 2007 Pouilly-Fuissé, produced by the Potel-Aviron partnership. It was in the interests of this article that I ignored the notion that white burgundies should hit the age of five before being opened. Nonsense!

I can attest that at four years old, the Pouilly-Fuissé is maturing nicely. With a green-yellow hue, this medium-bodied dry white has a hint of honey and hazelnut on the nose. On the palate, elegant mineral notes mix with bursts of sharp fruits that would allow it to accompany oysters and shellfish with a finish that was far more balanced than I was expecting. Maybe it is my natural impatience, but I have a nagging doubt that I would have enjoyed this wine as much if I had opened it last year, or the year before. On the other hand, given that duty on wine is sure to increase over the coming months perhaps it is a good time to look to invest long term? Well, if nothing else, it’s certainly an excuse to stock up on a few cases.

Wines supplied by Lazy Lounge, Leeds. www.lazy-lounge.com, Pinot Noir, £32; Pouilly-Fuissé, £28.

The taste matched up to the wine’s deep ruby purple colouration, containing ripe plum combined with darker oak and a depth of chocolate

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FASHION

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INSIDER OUTFITTER Like the star footballer he once wanted to be, William Hunt is making his presence felt in the public arena with an eye for styling that engages with the ordinary people who want to feel good about themselves. It’s what his company is all about, as he tells Chris Porter BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

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A walk down Savile Row takes the sartorially savvy by many august institutions – Huntsman, Anderson & Sheppard, Gieves & Hawkes.

These are the homes of the establishment, defiantly southern, well-to-do, understated.

But then comes some upstart window of suits more rock ‘n’ roll than banking ‘n’ business, lean styles in bolder colour and with touches of 50s Hollywood, favoured by footballers and TV presenters, anyone indeed, with a reputation as something of a dandy – Eddie Izzard, Jonathan Ross, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Nicky Clarke... To top it off, the

purveyor to such flamboyant gents is a Northerner.

One of William Hunt’s proudest moments came in 2007, when, after making Gary Neville’s wedding suit, the football professional pulled some strings and the designer was appointed to design the squad suits for his beloved home-team, Manchester United. It made for some useful PR, of course – but Hunt is seriously loyal. In 2007 he turned down a potent publicity windfall when asked to make the suits for Chelsea.

“But I’m just not passionate about Chelsea,”

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he explains. “I’ve also been asked to make them for the Liverpool squad. I turned that down too. But then I’d be stoned to death if I did that.”

Hunt’s allegiance has roots in more than geography. He became a professional footballer himself at 18 but, luck not on his side, it was the local music scene of Northern Soul that saw him drawn away from the pitch and towards the sketchpad. His own style of dress – inspired by a seamstress aunt and structured and simple, after the engineering he had studied while playing >>

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FASHION

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If I’m looking for ideas I’ll get a load of old movies out. The clothing in them was just magnificent

professionally – caught the attention of a local retailer who gave him his first opportunity to put his designs on a commercial footing. By 1988 Hunt had opened his first store, on Chelsea’s Kings Road, before making something of a statement in 1998 by moving onto Savile Row’s hallowed turf.

There his tailoring has won a reputation for certain cinematic look – the cool of Sinatra, for example, after whom Hunt has named one of this suit styles. Another is the Selleck. Yes, after Tom Selleck, Magnum PI, for whom Hunt has forecast a style re-appraisal by a still largely mocking public, much as Burt Reynolds has undergone.

“Music has been a massive influence, of course,” he says. “I’ve seen Elvis, the Beatles, Punk, the New Romantics... but if I’m looking for ideas I’ll get a load of old movies out. The clothing in them was just magnificent.

“What’s cooler than West Side Story? It’s just awesome. The whole idea of coloured suit linings, a signature for us, comes from that movie...”

A strong, clean-lined and largely unchanging look has worked for Hunt. The last decade has seen Savile Row go through turbulent times but Hunt has played the long game. His style is consistent and business is developing – the former by extending his bespoke tailoring offer with the launch of a successful wholesale line of ready-to-wear (“it’s all structured through, I don’t really do sloppy-wear”), a shoe range for Kurt Geiger and, coming up, a chain of shop-in-shops with independent retailer Flannels.

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“There has been a lot of hype – certain Savile Row tailors have been built up as amazing and the next thing you know it’s all gone wrong and they’re gone or had to close a line down,” says Hunt. “But the whole industry has changed. I remember the days when you could rock up to a shop with a load of clothes and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some gear, are you interested?’ and it could be being sold on the shop floor that day. These days much of the industry is too corporate, too many layers of

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middle management. I know buyers who can make buying a white T-shirt look difficult.”

Those years have also allowed him to indulge other passions. Sport is never far away from his thinking. Inspired by a request to make a pair of trousers for golfer Ian Poulter, in 2005 Hunt launched his own golfwear line. It is one suitably loud in the tradition of the game’s noisy checks and pastel sweaters of the 50s and 60s. As Hunt has said before, few sports afford a man the opportunity to dress like a

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I think success in the business I work in is about retaining the passion for the clothing, keeping it small and tight

pimp and still be dressed for the occasion – and that is some opportunity for a designer’s imagination to run amok. With other brands now chasing the golf pound with a sleek and bleak style, it was entirely within expectations that Hunt might go against the grain.

Indeed, brands may have developed clothing lines off the back of sports sponsorship before, but few have created a tournament out of a clothing line, too.

Encouraged by the number of pros asking him

to back them, in 2008 Hunt went one better and launched his own national UK golf event, the Trilby Tour. It was, of course, suitably unconventional – a chance for gifted amateurs to play under professional conditions and pressures, right down to being televised by Sky Sports, including this year’s new 12-part TV series format.

Never one to miss some publicity, Hunt provides the clothes and the caddies even carry a Hunt-designed golfbag. Last year’s

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winner and runner-up have both since turned pro. The event has been called the X-Factor of Golf; Hunt takes that as a compliment. The next one has already pulled in 1,200 applications to enter.

“It’s when the ordinary guy gets to brush up on his golf, brush up his clothes and play on TV,” he says. “It’s not an opportunity many otherwise get in life. Of course, it’s also a promotional vehicle for the golf clothing, and has really become a business in its own right.

But it fits into what we’re about as a company – making ordinary guys feel better about themselves, suits that make them look a bit taller and a bit more trim.”

Ironically perhaps, despite the high profile clothing and sports kit, Hunt himself is little-known compared with his peers. And that is the way he likes it. Who would know, for example, that his latest project has been putting together a TV series for Sky, a drama based on his experiences in the golf world, for which Hunt devised the treatments and a friend wrote the script? It is currently going through budget assessments.

“I think success in the business I work in is about retaining the passion for the clothing and that means it’s about keeping it small, tight, boutique,” he says.

“You can still grow as a business that way, but you can only do so by finding other people who share that passion. Then you can work as a team and have a lot of fun. I like the idea of keeping my head just below the parapet. It’s worked for me.” n

BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

rifling the past Shooting is hip. It’s not just about firing a gun but handling a brand that has been hand-crafted for almost 200 years, as Chris Porter discovers

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“It’s true that shotgun licences are in decline,” concedes Richard Purdey. “The generation that used to keep one loaded by the back door has passed on. But interest in shooting is seeing a steady increase. There’s more access to it – and it’s become a popular corporate event.

However, the fact is that most people given a chance to try it instantly become hooked. It’s very addictive seeing that little black disc disappear in a puff of smoke.”

Purdey, perhaps more than most, should know. In the London underworld, his surname is even slang for a shotgun, which is some back-handed accolade. A sixth-generation member of the family that established what is one of the most famous names in gun-making and director of the company which, since 1994, has been owned by the luxury goods giant Richemont, Richard Purdey learned to shoot young, even if much of his career has been spent in the premium cider industry.

“They’re materially very different,” he says.

“With guns you’re working with metal and wood, and of course you don’t get pissed shooting. But the process of creating a respected brand is much the same; it’s about quality and integrity.”

Perhaps this is why, although cashing in on country sport’s new-found popularity might have been tempting, and given that competitors the likes of Holland and Holland and Beretta have relaunched themselves as much as lifestyle brands as makers of elite >>

EQUIPMENT

A high-precision mechanical belt buckle is not cheap at £10,500, but then it is hand-made from steel and rose gold and inlaid with fossilised mammoth tooth

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Other brands may go down the lifestyle route – it has an exclusivity that is appealing – but I think it’s good that we stick to what we’re good at BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

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shooters, Purdey has stuck to its guns. This is the same ethos of specialism espoused by founder James Purdey who completed his seven-year apprenticeship in gun-making in 1805 and established his own business nine years later, winning Queen Victoria’s reputation-making custom in 1838.

Although Purdey now has a growing clothing line – and it is considered necessary that the brand supplies shooting enthusiasts with all they need to enjoy the sport to the same functional and quality standards as the guns themselves – two-thirds of the business remains in making what Purdey calls its “raison d’etre, the guns, these works of art.”

Not that the skills cannot be applied to things other than guns. One of Purdey’s latest products is a high-precision mechanical belt buckle, designed and made in a collaboration between Purdey’s gunmakers and inventor Roland Iten. It is not cheap at £10,500, but then it is hand-made from steel and rose gold and inlaid with fossilised mammoth tooth.

That the skills find other application is just as well. Works of art, of course – and it is only in the last 50 years that the decorative fine rose and scroll bouquet engraving of gun parts of the kind Purdey has been practicing since the 1850s has actually become internationally recognised as an art form – have a limited customer base. That is especially the case when only around 70 are produced each year.

“Other brands may go down the lifestyle route – by virtue of the market being so small it has an exclusivity that is appealing to the lifestyle market,” says Purdey. “But I think it’s good that we stick to what we’re good at.”

That, however, has not meant the company has been devoid of innovation or unconscious of the risks of resting on its reputation. Indeed, as Richard Purdey notes, companies that do not move forwards do not stand still, but tend to go backwards.

Purdey has consequently launched two new styles of gun over the last year. One is the entry-level Sporter; machine-made but hand-finished, a method made possible by the advanced CNC machinery Purdey has invested in – comparable, Richard Purdey says, to Bentley launching its Continental GT while providing a means to aspire to the bespoke products and a means of funding

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their skills and labour-intensive creation.

The company’s second new launch is a world first – the Damascus, a 20-bore over-andunder made from high-tensile steel. It was three years in development and comes with an asking price of £100,000-plus and made possible only by the recent advent of an ultra high-tech “powder metallurgy method” of steelmaking developed by Swedish steelmakers Damasteel.

“It’s a flight of fancy really,” explains Purdey, “but one that shows that we’re not frightened of working with new materials or combining art with the latest technology. From a purely

financial point of view everything about the project was screaming ‘don’t do it’. But it is all the more important for a very traditional brand to express the idea that we are forwardlooking. It invites comment, but it’s also inspiring to our craftsmen, who have to work out how to do it.

“After all, there are not many artefacts still in demand that have not changed much materially since about 1880. We need to look for new ways of doing things.”

Fortunately, Purdey adds, Richemont has taken a hands-off approach to its ownership of the business that has allowed such advances to be

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made at its own pace and in line with market demands. It has even cherished its history.

Richard Purdey may be quick in his response to just why he was headhunted to join what was once the family business, but it all plays to what remains an esteemed heritage.

“Well, Richemont wouldn’t have asked me to come on board as chairman if my name had been Joe Bloggs,” he says with a chuckle.

“And the Purdey name has always been there – I didn’t change it by deed poll. But of course I grew up shooting and first joined the company as an 18-year-old. Being back has felt a bit like coming home.” n

BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

MOTORING

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big cat, big car There are several alternatives to blue-and-white badged cars in the luxury end of the market – one being the Jaguar XJ 3.0D – and, after a test drive, Philip Pagett’s advice is to support British manufacturing What is the difference between a lawyer and a businessman? A businessman drives a Jaguar XJ, according to my children. This was the reaction when I arrived home in this elegant saloon rather than my customary 4x4. I wondered; does this mean lawyers aren’t businessmen? Perhaps not, but back to the subject of this piece.

It is not everyday that anyone gives me a £56,000 toy to play with. It is even more rare that someone gives me one for two days like the nice people from Jaguar did – a £56,275 “on the road” XJ 3.0D SWB Luxury, to be precise (although no-one told me what SWB meant and I didn’t ask).

To be fair, two days meant I got it overnight which in a busy week meant a drive home and a drive back in to Leeds the next day, but I’m not complaining.

My first question was whether it would give me that same experience that I used to have as a kid when I went in my friend’s dad’s Jag. My lasting memory was the absence of engine noise and super-smooth acceleration. The New XJ certainly had all of those things. Whilst any diesel isn’t going to be silent, this one does an excellent impersonation of many a luxury petrol engine but with far more torque (or “torques” as Jeremy C would say).

It is quieter than any diesel has a right to be. It doesn’t sound like a diesel from inside except when it is really being tested, which of course, I didn’t have a chance to do, not even on the Burley Bypass, honest!

It is an attractive and aggressive looking car in equal measure with a very distinctive deep grill to the front; from the back, it has something of the Bentley about it. I don’t know whether it was the absence of a German badge but there was no hesitation on the part of >>

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Overnight sensation: Philip Pagett’s XJ experience renewed his faith in British manufacturing

Looking at it from the outside, you might expect it to feel like a very long car, but from the inside you don’t really notice the length. The cabin feels quite snug queuing traffic to allow this car to break in from a side road. This is an experience rarely enjoyed by drivers of cars sporting the familiar German blue and white propeller mark.

On the inside, this beast reeks luxury with one or two slightly quirky design features. The chrome air vents have a slightly retro feel, reminding me of certain cars from the early

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Seventies – “sublime Art-Deco” is how one critic described it, but Ford Corsair 1.6 is what I kept thinking. But that is very unfair due to the genuine luxury feel of this big cat.

Looking at it from the outside, you might expect it to feel like a very long car, but from the inside, you don’t really notice the length at all. The cabin, whilst roomy, feels still quite

snug. The driving position is very comfortable amid beautifully-finished polished walnut and fine stitching detail in the soft leather.

The various controls and myriad of toys in this car are surprisingly easy to operate. Switches and displays are intuitive at least to anybody with basic IT skills – press the dynamic button and the electronic instrument display in front of you goes red, while (apparently) your seat belt stiffens and the six-speed auto transmission swiftly drops a couple of cogs.

Unfortunately, the joys of the Kirkstall Road traffic on the commute to and from Leeds meant that I didn’t have too much of a chance to test this out, but make no mistake there is serious power here, a fact confirmed as the back end stepped out very quickly as I hit the gas a fraction too early exiting a certain roundabout. Well, you’ve got to have some fun!

In conclusion, a fine motor and a credit to the British car industry. I strongly recommend to those in the market for a typical German marque in this price range that they test drive an XJ first. They will be very pleasantly surprised that this car presents a powerful argument to buy British. n Philip Paget is a partner and head of employment law at Gordons LLP, solicitors of Leeds and Bradford.

Car supplied by Appleyard Jaguar, Canal Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 4SR, tel 01274 514400. www.appleyard.bradford.jaguar.co.uk Prices start from £55,500.

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The future of the luxury car has arrived.

With the all new XJ from just £799* a month for business users, why wait to book a test drive?

The all new XJ looks like no other car in its class. It performs like no other car in its class. And according to experts at Glass’s Guide, it will hold its value like no other car in its class. Yet its effortless performance and extravagant specification can be yours from as little as £799* a month (business users only) through Jaguar Contract Hire.

Why wait to experience the future of the luxury car? Call us today to arrange your test drive.

For a personal appointment and demonstration at your business or home address contact Alan Walker, Business Sales Executive – alan.walker@jardinemotors.co.uk 01274 5144 0 0

APPLEYARD, BRADFORD Canal Road, Bradford BD1 4SR www.appleyard.bradford.jaguar.co.uk

OFFICIAL FUEL ECONOMY FIGURES FOR THE XJ RANGE IN MPG (L/100KM): URBAN 15.4 (18.3) – 29.6 (9.6); EXTRA URBAN 32.5 (8.7) – 50.0 (5.6); COMBINED 23.4 (12.1) – 40.1 (7.0). CO2 EMISSIONS 289 – 184 G/KM. MODEL SHOWN: XJ 3.0 LITRE DIESEL FROM £53,900† ON THE ROAD. †ON THE ROAD PRICE. MANUFACTURER’S RECOMMENDED RETAIL PRICE. FIGURES CORRECT AS AT 30TH JUNE 2010. *BASED ON A 36 MONTH AGREEMENT ON THE JAGUAR MODEL FEATURED, STANDARD SPECIFICATION, METALLIC PAINT, A MILEAGE OF 10,000 MILES PER ANNUM (30,000 MILES IN TOTAL), NON-MAINTAINED. INITIAL PAYMENT OF 6 MONTHS HIRE + VAT FOLLOWED BY 35 MONTHLY RENTALS AT RATE SHOWN + VAT. MAY BE SUBJECT TO FURTHER CHARGES DEPENDING ON THE CONDITION/MILEAGE WHEN VEHICLE RETURNED. FINANCE SUBJECT TO STATUS. GUARANTEES/INDEMNITIES MAY BE REQUIRED. THIS PROMOTION CANNOT BE USED TOGETHER WITH OTHER MANUFACTURER´S PROMOTIONS AND IS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY AT PARTICIPATING DEALERS ONLY FOR NEW VEHICLES ORDERED BY 30TH SEPTEMBER 2010, OR WHILE STOCKS LAST. OTHER GOODS/SERVICES SUPPLIED BETWEEN THE DEALER AND THE CUSTOMER ARE NOT INCLUDED. CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF BUSINESS USER MAY BE EXCLUDED. JAGUAR CONTRACT HIRE IS PROVIDED BY LEX VEHICLE LEASING, TRADING AS JAGUAR CONTRACT HIRE, HEATHSIDE PARK, HEATHSIDE PARK ROAD, STOCKPORT SK3 0RB. WRITTEN QUOTATIONS ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. ALL DETAILS ARE CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRINT AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

1215323 260x205 XJ Business Users_The Future_Mag_Appleyard.indd 1

01/09/2010 10:00

ENTREPRENEUR

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FREEDOM FIGHTER There is nothing in business quite as useful as tenacity. Peter Baber meets a man who not only impresses in that particular characteristic but who is also rarely short of ideas to be tenacious about It’s an aspiration of many a would-be entrepreneur, that they set up a business, grow it, make it a success, and then sell it and head off into the sunset many millions of pounds richer.

Sadly it doesn’t always work out that way. The multi-million pound headline figure that is quoted at the time of the deal often turns out to be a rather lower figure in the cold light of day.

That is what Andrew Thirkill would claim, and he has more cause to warn than most. He reckons the sale of one of his businesses, advertising agency ATP – which he sold in 1988 – netted him personally nothing at all.

“It certainly wasn’t worth it financially,” he says. “Although as a business person the experience made me better.”

Fortunately that experience, which we will come to later, didn’t stop him wanting to carry on. In fact, he has been a successful entrepreneur now for almost three decades, with all the trappings that brings – a nice house in Florida, friends in high places, and much, much more.

He intends to grow his latest venture, Freedom Back Clinics, into a nationwide chain of chiropractic and osteopath centres and he has been joined in the venture by none other than David Hood.

He didn’t really get to know the man who made millions from Pace until WH Ireland, stockbrokers for Infoserve, a local search company Hood launched after his time at Pace, called him in to be non-executive

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director of the company which was going through a bit of a wobble.

“They needed a couple of well-established non-execs and non-Pace people who could stand up to David,” he says. “As it happens I didn’t have to, because David is an affable chap, and Infoserve is doing very well now.”

As a result of being brought together, however, the two men got talking about ideas, including Thirkill’s idea for a back clinic.

“I really find him fantastic to work with,” he says. “I am an ideas person, and while David is an ideas person as well, he is grounded and sensible. He always looks from the opposite perspective.”

They both agreed that the main aim of the venture would be to produce a national brand in osteopathy, something he says the sector hasn’t really had before.

“I am not saying we can improve on quality necessarily,” he says, “but we can improve on accessibility. The principle is high-end chiro and osteo treatment. Not the traditional more cottage-industry type of practice.”

The first Freedom Back Clinic opened in Leeds in October 2009 and in its first year, despite the recession, it has had 10,000 customers.

Thirkill is surprised by the success, “although when I started to do research I discovered that in 2008 there were 2.8 million searches on the internet for back ailments in UK alone”.

A new branch is shortly to open in London, at North Colonnade, by Canary Wharf. The company, into which £1m has so far been invested, has also just got planning permission to open a third branch in a listed building in Albert Square in Manchester. They are in negotiations to open a second London branch, this time in the City proper, and a fifth branch in a “northern market town”. That will be the first to depart from the strategy of locating in large city centres.

“We are geared up to ease of access for office workers,” says Thirkill. “You can only start somewhere, but back treatment is blue collar as well.”

They plan to have six branches open by the end of 2011, and possibly as many as 20 >>

We can improve on accessibility. We are geared up for access to office workers.

You can only start somewhere, but back treatment is blue collar as well

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ENTREPRENEUR by the end of 2014. The only thing that is holding them back from more rapid expansion is finding the right property. Even now, landlords are not always happy to welcome a clinic as a tenant, because bringing them in involves getting a change of use, which landlords fear might be irreversible.

“In the north they think anything is better than nothing, but in London they know they can always find someone for these premises,” he says. “It does make us less desirable as a tenant, even with David’s vast financial wealth behind us.”

Thirkill and Hood have already started looking at other areas of ancillary healthcare that could also be turned into a national brand.

“We are looking to go into chiropody as well,” he says, “and looking to leverage the Freedom brand elsewhere. We are taking a calculated risk because nobody has done this before, and each clinic employs 16 people. But we have learned a lot in 15 months.”

Thirkill probably learned a good deal in a previous role, because this isn’t the first clinic company he has managed. He had a big role in turning around Ultralase, the laser eye surgery company, when it hit a blip in 2003.

“It was predominantly a marketing role, but I was quite involved with a business that was in trouble,” he says.

In fact, after the company was sold to Spanish buyers in 2005, he even toyed with the idea of setting up another laser eye surgery business.

While that didn’t happen, many former Ultralase managers work for companies he runs now, including Diane McKerracher. She was Ultralase operations director and moved on to Optical Express before Thirkill headhunted her as chief executive of Freedom Back Clinics.

He seems to have made a habit of going into industry sectors which can be said to have had had a shadowy image in the past, in an attempt to turn them around. Even today, for example, osteopaths and chiropractors haven’t entirely shaken off their “quack” reputation.

It’s undoubtedly one of the reasons the British Chiropractic Association fought so hard in its ultimately unsuccessful libel action against Guardian journalist Simon Singh who had questioned some of its claims about what chiropractice can achieve. Laser eye surgery

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We are looking to go into chiropody as well. We are taking a calculated risk because nobody has done this before and each clinic employs 16 people has in the past also come under a not-alwayspositive spotlight.

Thirkill admits that he does enjoy “raising the bar”, although he insists there wasn’t any problem with laser eye surgery as a practice, it was just that thanks to the activities of less scrupulous companies, the whole sector got a bad press and that affected Ultralase.

“The bad press didn’t only stop people enquiring,” he says. “It stopped people who were in treatment completing their treatment.

And that had an impact because the treatment cycle takes six weeks, and in all that time the business has high fixed costs.

“So if the revenue stops coming in even for a short time, you are left with enormous fixed costs.”

But raising the bar is certainly what he is aiming to do with Age Partnership, a specialist equity release brokerage company. Thirkill founded the business in 2005, and it’s clear that while it had been in planning for

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sometime, he was waiting for the industry to become fully regulated in that year with the introduction of the Safe Homes Income Plan (SHIP) regulations.

“We really pride ourselves on standards,” he says.

It’s not hard to see why this is an issue. Equity release was initially promoted as a means for people close to or in retirement to raise money for capital projects by borrowing on the equity of their homes. It sounded a good idea, but it only took a few horror stories about cowboy operators and people borrowing more than their house was worth for the likes of the Consumer’s Association to warn that equity release should only be viewed as a lender of last resort, if that.

Even Barclays got its fingers burned with shared appreciation which, while not strictly speaking equity release, encouraged people to give up a portion of the value of their homes in a way that was judged unfair. Barclays has

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subsequently had to set up a hardship scheme for affected customers.

Thirkill says all that has changed since regulation, and the rates that equity release products can offer – 6.5%, say, but fixed for 30 years – make the product very compelling.

But he admits there is still an awareness issue.

“People shy off because they say they love their house,” he says, “but equity release really is identical to a mortgage where the mortgagee has a charge on your house.

“You borrow the money and you pay interest which is rolled up. When you pass on and your property is sold, you or your estate pays off the mortgage company.

“Typically, if you borrow £25,000, it takes 11 years for that £25,000 to double. You would hope over that time that the property will have increased at a similar rate, if not more. There is never any chance of not meeting payments and risking foreclosure.”

Age Partnership offers equity release as a lump sum or you can have a draw-down facility. And unlike before regulation, you are not required to take out more than you actually need. SHIP regulations mean the whole process has to be vetted by an independent solicitor.

Age Partnership has certainly grown strongly.

In just five years, it has become number two in the market, with an 18% market share, a turnover of £4.4m in 2009, and profits of £589,000.

Operations director Simon Warhurst, another former Ultralase manager, says the company is just putting its toe in the water in other areas too, offering customers advice on annuities. He says the company stands to gain from the ever-increasing numbers of people reaching retirement.

“There’s a huge upturn in baby boomers hitting 65,” he says.

Thirkill says that while the focus for the moment is on growth, as with Freedom Clinics, building a valued brand is just as important.

“We believe that in 20 years Age Partnership will be a brand that will be recognised,” he says.

It is easy to see why he is so keen on standards, however, when you see to what extent he himself was a victim of poor

ENTREPRENEUR

Sedentary jobs are likely to cause posture difficulties which chiropractors can ease standards in business practice. Here we come back to the issue of his sale that didn’t achieve anything – “a bad period in my life” he calls it.

In 1988 he sold ATP, an advertising agency he had built up from scratch over eight years after leaving the Yorkshire Post at the hoary age of 22, to Moss Trust.

Moss was a quoted company, and with offices all around the world it seemed a haven for Thirkill’s baby. So he accepted a deal in which the vast proportion of the money he got was in the form of Moss Trust shares.

What he didn’t know was that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and was mainly interested in his company because of its healthy balance sheet.

“The Yorkshire Post was always very kind to me,” he says, “and at the time they wrote a story saying, ‘Ad man Andrew sells for £2.7m’.

I actually only got £135,000. The rest was in shares. My business had £600,000 in the bank, and in late 1988 that was a lot of money. I was conned.”

The company still went under, making his shares worthless, then the bank asked him to come back in and run Moss Trust to try to save it. There followed 18 months of rampant restructuring, with both Sir Ralph Halpern and Sir John Harvey-Jones – who he brought in as non-executive directors – being amazed at his tenacity.

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But the scotching of a rights issue by existing shareholders and the death of his father persuaded him that enough was enough, and he took advantage of a clause he had included in his agreement with the bank and took what remained of ATP back out of the company.

It wasn’t all bad news, however. While all this was going on he successfully sold Talking Ads, another of his businesses, to the Yorkshire Post.

And he sued each one of the Moss Trust directors personally, with each director settling out of court in his favour.

But how would he advise someone in a similar position to the one he was in when he was approached by Moss Trust?

“Simple,” he says. “Take cash.”

What, always?

“Well, it depends. Shares are a currency. If I am taking shares in Aviva, that’s not the same as taking shares in Moss Trust in 1988. It’s like taking US dollars out instead of whatever they have in Zimbabwe. (Also dollars, actually.) If the purchasing company is outside the FTSE350 you have to be careful, because you can end up with nothing.

“I was lucky because I was only 30 at the time, so I was able to cope. You can recover at that age, you are full of ideas.”

Aged 51 now, he still seems to have a good few ideas coming. n

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SUCCESS STORY

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IDEAS? THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Converting dreams into a business may have worked for Richard Branson, but, as Peter Baber writes, some youngsters need a little help

“It wasn’t difficult to get a loan for our business at all. I can appreciate it might be difficult for start-up companies, but not for one with our kind of track record. Probably next year we will go back to NatWest to get a much bigger one as well.”

If this sounds like the brash voice of a young entrepreneur, you would be sort of right.

Robin Lihou is the owner of Visiosound, a company based in Luddendenfoot that specialises in supplying PA systems and other audio and technical material to recording studios and special events. It’s been going three years, and in that time has tripled its turnover.

We are forever being told about the need to engender young entrepreneurs at school. But in a lot of other magazines, the “young” entrepreneurs we get to hear about are already in their 30s. We rarely hear about people who are really just starting out.

People like Lihou, because he is only 20 and he started the business when he was only 17.

He must be especially committed, because he

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gave up a place studying mechanical engineering at Imperial College London to keep the business running.

“The business really fell off,” he says. “I had tried to have someone working for me, but I realised I couldn’t really manage that from London.”

So what inspired him to give up a place on a course that is central to an institution that vies with Cambridge for being the top university in the country, just so that he could carry on running a business, with all the uncertainty that brings?

The answer, in his case it seems, is that running a business is in his blood. Visiosound, which used to be called LS Audio Tech, was born when he started selling guitar strings and cables when he was in the sixth form at Calder High School. So far, just like any other teenager.

“It was an eBay shop selling guitar strings and cables,” he says. “It progressed from there, part-time while studying for A-levels.”

Today he employs two people, and has moved the business into a bigger showroom.

“We still sell a lot of stuff through eBay,” he says, “and through our website, although we are starting to get repeat business. We have a 20,000-strong customer database, and can take orders over the phone.”

He is also starting to move in higher circles.

This summer Visiosound provided all the PA systems for an event to publicise the new film of Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. The Hollywood star himself was present – not bad for a little company nestling at the bottom of the Calder Valley which still only has a turnover of £145,000.”

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He says he enjoys running his own company because of the freedom it gives him – to work when he wants on what he wants. And that’s a common theme among the young entrepreneurs we spoke to. Although sometimes their reasoning might not be what you expect.

Mohammed Patel, for example, who currently has responsibility for two businesses, a nursery retailer and an ethnic food supplier, says he likes working for himself because he is hopeless at getting out of bed in the morning.

“I’m a bit of a lazy guy, and I want to wake up late,” he says. But the 19-year-old continues: “It’s all very well getting a guaranteed wage in employment, but you have to be there at 9am.

With my job, the beauty is flexibility. The drawback of course is that you have to stay on long after 5pm.”

It has to be said that both men have had a helping hand from their parents. Before he got the bank loan from NatWest, Lihou was lent £4,000 by his father, who works for a food wholesaler, to get the business started. As a result his father – who also does all the company’s accounts – now has a 20% stake in the business.

“But my parents don’t have any pension of their own,” says Lihou, “so this was their way of getting one.”

Mohammed Patel has been rather more fortunate in that the two companies he works for, Kiddie Kingdom and MB Foods, both based in Dewsbury, have been run for much of the past two decades by his father Hanif. In fact he first came to work for the business when he was 16 on a work placement. He admits that at the time he was too lazy to look for a work placement anywhere else.

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SUCCESS STORY

Up for it: Young entrepreneur Mohammed Patel, with Ashleigh Kelly in the background But he has transformed both businesses since then. With Kiddie Kingdom, he has taken much of the business online, a project he has run mostly single-handedly, and which has added £1m to the shop’s turnover, taking it, Patel says, to be in the top ten independent nursery retailers in the UK. “My dad had fire when he was young,” he says. “He would make things work. But when I arrived at the shop I thought it looked like Aladdin’s den. I realised we could be better.

Within a week I had rearranged the shop.”

He says the employees, many of whom are considerably older than him, didn’t like the new arrangement, because it involved doing more work. But when they saw how much it improved the business they began to respect him – and that was crucial for someone who could easily be seen as just the proprietor’ son.

“We were all bricks and mortar three years

ago,” he says, “and now we are 90% online.

How would we have survived if we hadn’t gone online?”

Kiddie Kingdom accounts for around 80% of all the business he does, but he has also devoted some attention to the other business, MB Foods. For 15 years it had done nothing but import one brand of samosa pastry. Patel was quick to realise that if the business was to have any future at all, he would have to broaden the product range, so he went out and sourced a new product – Al Alwani dates.

“People think that dates are dates,” he says, “whether you brand them or not. But traditionally they have always been shrinkwrapped. That doesn’t do justice to dates, which have so many health benefits, which we have listed on new marketing material I have devised. I don’t want to be a oneproduct company.”

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Even with their parental connections, however, both Lihou and Patel have grand ambitions for their companies.

“In five years I would hope to have a £1m turnover and be making a nice living,” says Lihou. “I could possibly think about selling on the business too.”

Patel, who says his father has now handed more control of both businesses to him, says he wants Kiddie Kingdom to be within the top three independent nursery retailers in the UK within a decade – although he has no plans to sell.

“There’s an online business that’s bigger than us called Kiddicare.com,” he says, “but I think there is nothing special about it. They have done everything we did, it’s just that they started earlier.”

In fact, towering ambition is one thing that seems to unite all the young entrepreneurs we spoke to.

Matthew Postlethwaite, aged 19, originally from Cumbria but studying in Huddersfield, is currently engaged in launching a business in the drinks sector. But he also has an interest in running bars, an ambition that has not been diminished by his best friend losing all his money on just such a business. In fact, Postlethwaite only missed out investing in the business with him because the bank wouldn’t give him a loan.

“I have my own target that by 25 I will be running the best bar in this country, and by 35 the best bar in the world,” he says.

He likens such an attitude to doing Art A-level.

“I got a U in it, and my teacher said I was rubbish, but I still thought I was really good.”

Similarly Josh Donaire, an 18-year-old who has already launched two businesses on eBay that made enough for him to buy his first car and pay the first two years of car insurance, is currently working up a plan to get into discount retailing.

Chris and Phil Gentry, owners of Honest Freddie’s a Yorkshire-based discount retailer, have been so impressed with the online work he has done for them that they have given him a third share of any business they make on the internet.

“At the moment there are only five to six lines online,” he says, “but we hope to make it >> up to 50 lines soon.” He says the brothers

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SUCCESS STORY

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Valuable: Professor John Thompson, left, with Ashleigh Kelly and Mohammed Patel

The course is very valuable for people who want to be entrepreneurs but are not ready to be so 18. It has to be small enough so everybody trusts everybody else are not worried about him having wider ambitions.

Like Lihou at the start, our entrepreneurs seem to have had little problem with the banks they might approach for funding either. Patel says the banks “love me to bits”.

“They look after me,” he says.

Ashleigh Kelly says the same. The 21-year-old has taken a year off from her textile design course to launch ditchndazzle.com, a website making recycled jewellery, clothing and accessories from recycled material and offering a discount for people who send in their discarded jewellery and textiles, with her 23-year-old friend Kelly Aldred. She says they found opening a business account with Santander very easy. All she had to do was present a business plan.

But then she says the more sociable parts of running a business, in particular running customer questionnaires, is what has come easy to her.

“Not all business is common sense,” she says.

“But the marketing side is common sense, and

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your personality comes across with it. You have to be sociable, outgoing, and friendly.”

Then how do the suppliers and contacts these people deal with react when they find out how young they are? Patel thinks age has played to his advantage.

“There were lots of big manufacturers I took advantage of because they knew I was young and they were more merciful,” he says.

The one problem most of our young people say they still haven’t mastered is delegation.

Even Lihou, with his two employees, finds it difficult.

“It’s hard getting people to do stuff the way you want,” he says. “And we will be getting another person by September.”

It is to help such people solve this and other issues that the University of Huddersfield has introduced its enterprise development course, a two-year course during which students are expected to get a business off the ground. The first students on the course, who include Patel, are due to graduate this summer.

The star turn in the curriculum is TV

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entrepreneur Theo Paphitis. He comes to the university to deliver a masterclass and the students, who also include Donaire and Postlethwaite, have to pitch their ideas to him.

Although she is not strictly part of the course, but is instead doing an entrepreneurial version of a sandwich placement, Kelly pitched her idea to Paphitis too.

“It was really nerve-wracking, but he liked it,” she says.

John Thompson, professor of entrepreneurship at the university, says the course is just as much about sharing ideas as being taught.

“It has to be small enough so everybody knows and trusts everybody else to share ideas,” he says.

You have to wonder, however, why such young people who are so keen to set up in business want to go to university anyway.

After all, thanks in part of the track record of people like Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, it has long been held in this country that entrepreneurs and academia don’t mix.

Thompson says this is changing.

As the number of school leavers going to university rises – 10% when he was a student, 43% now – students feel they are missing out if they don’t go, he says. And if nothing else, the course will teach them to prepare themselves for self-employment ahead.

After all, with the ratio of people going to university rising that quickly, it is that much more likely that graduates in general will enter jobs where freelancing and self-employment is the norm.

“The course is very valuable for people who want to be entrepreneurs but are not ready to be so at 18,” he says.

Although he admits the course is a distraction, Donaire says: “The course will help me get more ideas than might have been the case if I was just standing on my feet.”

Even for those not on the course, academia has again beckoned. Last October Lihou went back to university, doing mechanical engineering again, but this time at Nottingham.

“I might do something with mechanical engineering,” he says. “I have always been into design, so I might combine the two.”

At least this time the business is only an hour or so away. n

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SUCCESS STORY

new gym’ll mix it A revolution in how leisure and fitness centres operate is well under way, as Peter Baber discovers – and that budget doesn’t mean inferior J­ on Wright, a 39-year-old who for most of the past two decades has worked in the health and fitness club sector, remembers the heady days of the early 1990s when the idea of going down to your local private gym to get fit, relax, and perhaps much more really caught on.

“Then you could open a gym and charge any joining fee you wanted,” he says, “because there was very little competition.”

And its true. Throughout the 1990s and much of the following decade the health club sector was seen as a real hotspot by many investors.

Millions of pounds poured in to finance the growth of companies like LA Fitness, Fitness First, and Virgin Active.

But in recent years, and particularly since the credit crunch, investors’ enthusiasm for such ventures has wavered. LA Fitness took itself private, Esporta went into administration and was eventually bought out by its own bank, and more recently Total Fitness also went briefly into administration before a pre-pack deal was agreed.

And while Duncan Bannatyne’s chain of health clubs may still be doing well, the same cannot be said for a similar venture launched by his fellow dragon James Caan. His NuYuu chain had to be rescued by the Energie Group – although one of its five branches closed completely, with staff apparently only being made aware of the trouble the company was

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in when they received their P45s in the post.

Given such a climate, you might wonder who would think of opening a new health club, especially one as large as 27,000 sq ft, as Wright has just done in Wakefield?

You might, until you discover that the gym is a pared-down version of what most hardened gym junkies are used to. There’s no swimming pool, no sauna, no steam room, no lockers, no café or bar, although there is a staffed reception. As a result, the gym – called Xercise4less – is able to offer customers a membership fee of as little as £14.99 a month, with just a £20 joining fee. In a sector where average monthly membership fees are still as much as £46, that’s quite a drop. No >>

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SUCCESS STORY wonder the club sold 3,000 memberships in the pre-sale stage, and in just a few weeks is already up to 4,000.

Welcome to the world of budget gyms, companies that are aiming to do for the health club sector what the likes of EasyJet have done for the airline sector.

It’s a world that is already familiar to gym-goers in the USA and in particular Germany. There the McFit chain of gyms, launched by the charismatic but highly controversial entrepreneur Rainer Schaller, is now the country’s largest gym chain with more than 130 branches.

But it’s still just catching on in Britain, although Wright isn’t the first to bring the concept here.

And unlike the traditional health club sector, this part of the market is one that investors are very keen to put money into.

Just last month, for example, private equity house Bridges Ventures made a second tranche of investment in the Gym Group, a chain founded by former squash champion John Treharne in 2007 which is due to open its latest branch in the Core shopping centre in Leeds in April 2011.

Treharne, who built up the Dragons chain of gyms before it was sold to LA Fitness, says the new money will take Bridges’ investment up to £17.4m, and, together with funding from HSBC, means his company now has a “£30m war chest”.

At the same time Peter Roberts, a Yorkshire businessman who successfully sold his Golden Tulip chain of hotels to Whitbread for £44m in 2007, is using the same management team to build up his Pure Gym chain, the first of which opened next to the Corn Exchange in Leeds in 2009.

Roberts was a former board member of Treharne’s Dragons clubs, and had initially wanted to run his operation as a franchise of Gym Group, although the discussions came to nothing. But after initially raising £3.5m for the operation from private investors, in March this year Magenta Partners invested £6m in the company, while he is now looking to raise more funds.

Curiously enough, there is another connection here; both Bridges and Magenta have themselves been backed by the family trust of Tom Singh, the founder of the New Look retail

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A pool is a very costly facility. In the average raquets club with a pool I would be surprised if there were more than ten people using it at any one time chain. He is a man who should know a thing or too about the budget market.

Will Oxley, partner at Grant Thornton in Leeds, whose London colleagues were the administrators for Esporta, welcomes what he sees as a new initiative in a market which he says has got rather “samey”.

Treharne is absolutely clear about the potential that is out there.

“The UK health club market is the most expensive in the world,” he says. “And when you look at the quality of service relative to what you pay for, the charging pattern is very poor.”

Wright would certainly agree about the service. The sector as a whole tends to have relatively young workforce for obvious reasons.

As a result in traditional gyms, he says, you can often go in and the staff will seem to be most pre-occupied in chatting amongst themselves. He has got around the problem and cut costs by not having any personal trainers on they pay roll. Instead they come in on a self-employed basis, and have to attract custom rather like a hairdresser with a chair,

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although the younger ones can offer to work for the gym itself for a number of hours in lieu of rent.

Treharne says it makes perfectly good commercial sense to forget about added on accessories that no one actually wants.

“We want to turn the gym market on its head and see what people really want instead of putting in what we think they want and charging them for it,” he says. “A pool is a very costly facility. In the average racquets club with a pool I would be surprised if there were more than ten people using it at any one time.

But you still have to heat it and make sure the temperature is right.

“Similarly, while there is a social aspect to a gym, or at least the element of one, if you look at average spend per head in club bar you would usually find that it is not viable.”

Both men insist, however, that these gyms are budget, not bargain basement.

“It’s a common misconception that budget gyms mean inferior service,” says Treharne.

“They actually mean better service, because the staff are not busy checking the pool or

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loading bar stools. So they have more time for you, the customer. We have ten to 12 staff per club.”

Roberts adds that, despite the pared-down services, these gyms are still not cheap to put together. Pure Gym spends roughly £1m on each new branch.

“We are a budget gym, but not a cheap gym,” he says. “It’s not a spit and sawdust place. That is a lower level of the market down to which we won’t go.”

The £1m investment goes on things like expensive swipe card and CCTV systems. Both Gym Group and Pure Gym make use of this to ensure that they can remain open for 24 hours without being staffed all that time. Instead, each branch is monitored via CCTV and customers exercising on their own have a panic button to press if there is an emergency.

Treharne says there are no health and safety implications in this.

“We have been fully risk assessed,” he says.

“And Axa have not given us any additional premium because of this system. But it does mean that we can have 400,000 visits a year at our Hounslow branch, for example. Our Brighton venue has 15% of usage when the management is off-site.”

Wright’s Xercise4less gym is like the other two groups in putting all of its back office operations onto a web-based system to save money, in offering day memberships, and in having a nominal joining fee, there is some divergence over the issue of contracts that

SUCCESS STORY

lock customers in. Treharne is fervently against these.

“I was never persuaded by the idea of membership by compulsion,” he says. “Other clubs have come unstuck with trading standards over this. It could be a better way of running a business, but it isn’t because by not having such contracts you have to prove that you are good. If you insist on locking people in they just get disenchanted and won’t come back to you or anybody else.”

Xercise4less, however, offers two kinds of membership, one of which offers a £1 reduction in membership fees in return for signing on for 12 months.

“People are used to tied in contracts now with mobile phones,” says Wright. “Seventy per cent of our customers have gone for the contract option.”

But is there not a danger when you reduce everything to bare essentials that a new customer might conclude that they could save even more money by just buying a home gym? “Market research shows that home gyms almost always end up in the garage,” says Wright.

So how will the conventional market respond to this new threat? After all, conventional supermarkets have been able to some extent to respond to the likes of Aldi and Lidl by dropping their prices on key products. That was thought to be one of the reasons why Aldi’s latest sales figures in the UK have proved disappointing.

Wright, however, thinks it will be hard for conventional health clubs to respond to the threat by dropping prices, partly because they expanded at a time when property prices were astronomically high. His new club, by contrast, had been an Allied Carpets warehouse until that company went into administration, making the landlord desperate to find a new tenant.

He adds that when NuYuu first launched itself by taking on some of LA Fitness’s unwanted sites (an offer he thinks should have caused warning bells to ring from the start), it quickly alienated customers by suddenly emptying pools with very little notice. A quick glance at discussion forums on the web on the subject suggest that he is right.

Wright’s Wakefield gym is the second in what

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he hopes will be eventually be a 15-strong chain. He opened his first five years ago next to Xscape in Castleford and at the beginning of 2009 decided to drop membership prices from £35 to £15. Such a change was hard, he admits.

“We were only able to flip because we were very cash positive,” he says. “We have taken the sauna out. We did have some users who came here for that, but the difference is negligible. And as a result we have seen a 60 to 70% increase in revenue and significant cost cutting.”

Both Treharne and Roberts think instead that there will be a polarisation of the market, even if Treharne thinks that at the top end there is currently no national brand in the UK. “There will always be room in the market for a bigger club for families,” says Roberts.

Oxley too, thinks there is plenty of room in the market for budget and conventional gyms, partly because they are going for different demographics, with the budget gyms much more geared at the student sector.

The budget gym operators will also tell you that by dropping prices they are also attracting people who have never been to a club before.

Wright claims market penetration in the UK health club sector is still as low as 20%, meaning there is much to go at. Oxley, however, thinks this figure might not include the many health clubs that are contained within hotels and other facilities, so that penetration may actually be much higher.

He warns too, that budget gyms may not have it all their own way. “In the USA they can afford to have big warehouse gyms which the likes of Gym Group are trying to emulate here,” he says.

It only remains to wonder why, if the budget gyms have been so successful in other countries, they have taken to long to latch on here.

“They haven’t come before because the property available in the UK is quite different,” says Roberts. “It’s a more legalised structure here too, with DDA requirements which can be quite foreboding.”

Even now, he says, the overseas operators are only just starting to come into the UK on a franchise basis. If Yorkshire is anything to go by, they should find an already active market. n

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BIT OF A CHAT

with Frank Tock >> A dash, but worth it Its certainly been a physical quarter. In November, yours truly was honoured to be accepted onto the Endless team at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k road race. Although the overall event aims to raise money for Age UK, the event was also an opportunity to give some pre-launch promotion to the Turnaround Foundation, a new charity founded by the partners at Endless which will be properly launched in 2011. The team comprised over 50 business people from Leeds, and Graham Pearce of KPMG came first with a time of 33 minutes. Well done to him. Perhaps not altogether surprisingly, new Deloitte managing partner Martin Jenkins won the award for raising the most money, a stunning £1,700, although he came in with a very creditable time of 49 minutes on what he claimed was his first 10k. The team also included former professional footballer Danny Mills and Andy McMenemy, who in March next year will try to break a world record by running 66 marathons in 66 days, aiming to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund. For details on him, visit www.challenge66.org. In fact, over half the Endless team came in under 50 minutes But sadly that doesn’t include Frank Tock.

Although he managed a personal best, it was still only 51:57.

>> We stand corrected One Kristal Ireland, who despite the name is actually digital marketing manager at Welcome to Yorkshire, has written in response to our Once Bitten story last issue, about whether the tourism

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body was wise to set up a presence in Foursquare. We always like getting readers’ letters, so here is what she said: “Here at Welcome to Yorkshire we are trying to move with the times and embrace the digital era which will allow us to reach even more potential visitors to Yorkshire. It hasn’t cost us a penny to invest in Foursquare which was set up by our small digital team. The use of digital technology is also in response to criticism of the former Yorkshire Tourist Board which some felt was leaflet-dominated and not moving with the times. The phrase ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ springs to mind! Now with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and iphone apps we are opening up Yorkshire to the rest of the UK and the world.” Do keep sending your letters in to peterb@bq-magazine.co.uk.

>> Giving it a miss Kristal’s boss Gary Verity also gave us a good example of how not to market your region – although fortunately it wasn’t Yorkshire he was talking about. Speaking at the opening night of Leeds United’s Centenary Pavilion, he revealed that he had recently been asked by Radio Somerset to comment on that county’s own advertising campaign.

Apparently the good business people of Somerset are peeved that all the tourist traffic just shoots through the county on the M5 on the way to Devon and Cornwall. So they had put together a billboard advert of a man sitting sipping a pint of cider with the logo: “Don’t pass through Somerset – let Somerset pass through you.” I am really not sure what to say about that.

>> Hard done by Are you, or do you know a 42-year-old mother? If so, there is a good reason why she may be feeling more hard done by than most. A new survey of more than 3,000 women conducted on behalf of food waste disposal manufacturer InSinkerator revealed that 42-year-old Yorkshire mums spend more time washing

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dishes in the kitchen sink than any other sort of woman in the country. Although the survey revealed that the average British woman will spend 90 days in front of the sink, those who spend least time are said to be single women living in London.

Apparently they are more likely to have something called a dishwasher. In Yorkshire they are instead more likely to have a man in slippers heading off to bed saying: “Supwier?”

>> Fear of flying conquered Congratulations this month must also go to the management team at Guiseley-based IFA and insurance brokers J M Glendinning.

They managed to raise £8,000 for Yorkshire Cancer Research by doing a sponsored parachute jump, despite managing director Paul Glendinning not only having a fear of flying but having a fear of height, too. The jump had originally planned as a 40th birthday surprise by the rest of the management team who felt he should address his fears once and for all. He managed to get one up on them by suggesting a team effort instead.

>> It’s in the beans Some years ago there was a huge amount of PR puff when Fortnum & Mason announced it was looking for a chocolate taster. Not to be outdone, Lincoln & York, a coffee roasting company based in Brigg on the south side of the Humber, is searching for a coffee taster.

The successful candidate will grade and roast green coffee samples, evaluate competitor products, and help with buying in the likes of Brazil and Costa Rica.

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COMPANY PROFILE

The Business and Commercial banking team in Harrogate, headed by director Ian Barnet, offer help to a wide range of businesses based in the towns and more rural locations surrounding the North Yorkshire district.

HARROGATE: A GATEWAY TO THE DALES FOR NATWEST

T

HE team are keen to offer their support to areas without a nearby NatWest branch and are passionate about offering banking facilities to both start-ups and established businesses in more remote areas.

It’s not just traditional funding that the bank can help with either. NatWest has introduced a number of initiatives and practical guides to provide advice on managing cash flow, dealing with bad debts and spreading the risk to protect your business.

These include the launch of an Online Business Review tool which is designed to provide support materials to help SMEs review their growth aspirations and the SME Business Hub which offers free support online to help entrepreneurs avoid the pitfalls of the economic climate and plan for future opportunities. The information is available online without the need to go to a branch and businesses can access interactive business reviews, economic reports and practical guides by visiting www.natwest.com/support.

One new business that has benefited from the expertise of NatWest’s Harrogate team is consultancy firm Quants Environmental.

The start-up has offices in Ripon and Leeds, and offers ecology and development services with a view to managing environmental risk. This includes protected species surveys, planning advice and construction services.

Quants Managing Director, Andrew Westgarth, a resident of Ripon, has formed the start-up company after securing £40k of funding from NatWest and the company are already underway with their first projects and are set-up to serve customers from all sectors and across the United Kingdom.

Andrew Westgarth said: “I’m really happy we’ve been able to make our first steps and already have some very interesting projects underway including specialist bat work at Swinsty Reservoir Lodge,

Left to right: Steve Ellis Relationship Manager, NatWest; Andrew Westgarth, Quants, Managing Director development services for golf courses, ecological planning support to local architects and planners and a whole range of bird, badger, invasive weed removal and great crested newt surveys within the private sector.”

“Without Nat West’s support none of this would have been possible, especially during what can only be classed as testing commercial times.”

Steve Ellis, Relationship Manager for NatWest said of the deal: “Being based in Harrogate and living in Nidderdale I’m keen to support local businesses and Andrew has a very impressive venture on his hands here and it’s been a pleasure to make his vision a reality by helping fund these first steps.

“Nationally we are helping around 2,000 new businesses get off the ground every week and I’m keen to see as many of those in the Harrogate and District area as possible. I look forward to continuing to work with Andrew as Quants grows in the future”

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SECURITY MAY BE REQUIRED PRODUCT FEE’S MAY APPLY. OVER 18’s ONLY ANY PROPERTY USED AS SECURITY, WHICH MAY INCLUDE YOUR HOME, MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT

For further information please contact: Liam Kane Regional Director Business & Commercial Banking, Yorkshire.

Tel: 0113 307 8420 Email: liam.kane@rbs.co.uk www.natwest.com

BUSINESS QUARTER |WINTER 10

EVENTS DIARY

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BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward-plan.

If you wish to add your event to the list send it to: editor@bq-magazine.co.uk

JANUARY 12 JANUARY The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Mint Hotel (formerly City Inn), Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 12 JANUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch; Maxi’s Restaurant, York, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 13 JANUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Leeds United, 7.30am-9.30am. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 13 JANUARY Leeds Media at the Seaside; Nash’s Fish & Chip Restaurant, Leeds, 6-8pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 18 JANUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch; Crown Spa Hotel, Scarborough, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 19 JANUARY The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Yo Yo Restaurant, Bradford, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 25 JANUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Middlethorpe Hall, York, 7.30am-9.00am. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 27 JANUARY China India roadshow organised by UKTI; Crown Plaza Hotel, Leeds, 9am-3pm. For more details email events@financialleeds.com 28 JANUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, with headline speech from Andy Clarke, chief executive of Asda; Queens Hotel, Leeds, 7pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

FEBRUARY 3 FEBRUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Leeds United, 7.30am-9.30am. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 3 FEBRUARY The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 4 FEBRUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce construction lunch; Pavilion Hotel, York, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

17 FEBRUARY The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Cedar Court Grand, York, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 18 FEBRUARY Building BRICs for international growth, a UKTI seminar looking at doing business in Brazil, Russia, India and China; Aspire, Leeds, 9am5pm. For more details ring 0845 607 6715 18 FEBRUARY The Met Club Leeds Business Lunch, with guest speaker Tony Veverka, chief executive of Ultralase; Mint Hotel (formerly City Inn), Leeds, 12.00-2.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 22 FEBRUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Bedern Hall, York, 7.30am-9.00am. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

MARCH 2 MARCH Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch; Best Western Monkbar Hotel, York, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 3 MARCH Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Leeds United, 7.30am-9.30am. For more details visit www. yourchamber.org.uk 3 MARCH The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 9 MARCH The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Mint Hotel (formerly City Inn), Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 11 MARCH Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch; Crowne Plaza Hotel, Leeds, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 15 MARCH Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast; Lady Anne Middleton’s Hotel, York, 7.30am-9.00am. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 16 MARCH The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Yo Yo Restaurant, Bradford, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 17 MARCH The Met Club Twitter/Facebook seminar; Hazlewood Castle, York.

For more details ring 01423 525622

9 FEBRUARY The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Mint Hotel (formerly City Inn), Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 10 FEBRUARY Leeds Enterprise Exchange networking forum, an event designed to boost links between schools, employers and other people who want to see enterprise grow in the city; Leeds Museums Discovery Centre, 3.30pm6.00pm. For more details ring 0113 288 3570 10 FEBRUARY Yorkshire PA of the Year Awards; Queens Hotel, Leeds. For more details visit www.qconferences.co.uk/paoftheyear 11 FEBRUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce ladies networking lunch; De Vere Oulton Hall, Leeds, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 15 FEBRUARY The Met Club LinkedIn seminar; Crown Hotel, Harrogate, 8.3010.30am. For more details ring 01423 525622

BUSINESS QUARTER | WINTER 10

16 FEBRUARY Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch, York Racecourse, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

23 MARCH Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce business lunch; Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 12-2pm. For more details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 31 MARCH Unfold Property Exhibition, a display of all the property opportunities available in the Leeds city region, plus seminars and keynote speech by Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan; Leeds Town Hall, 10am-5.15pm. For more details visit www.unfoldleeds.com 31 MARCH The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club; Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622 Please check with the contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above email address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they know of them.

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Game Dinner on Wednesday 19th January hosted by Sykes House Farm.

ONLY £55 PER PERSON Price includes a four course dinner & matching wines.

Yorkshire Cheese & Beer lunch on Saturday 19th February in association with York Brewery.

ONLY £25 PER PERSON Price includes a three course lunch & matching wines.

Seafood & Spanish Wine on Thursday 31st March hosted by Fowler & Sons.

ONLY £65 PER PERSON Price includes a four course dinner & matching wines.

the local farmer and die-hard fisherman do an amazing job. We salute our local heroes with this new menu, which is great for the region and perfect for lunch or dinner.

Jonathan Allen. Bistro Manager

89, The Mount, York YO24 1AX Please quote ‘Business Quarter’ when booking

01904 557 350 events.york@hotelduvin.com

Think Homegrown & Local. Think